Lord Coe speaks on replacing Usain Bolt

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): IAAF President Sebastian Coe spoke with AIPS young reporters. About the issue of replacing Usain Bolt he said: “You don’t replace Usain Bolt. So what do we need from the athletes? We need the athletes to be more accessible. We need to make sure that we are telling their stories properly. I have a working proposition that to find people to fill Usain Bolt’s shoes where the performance is the passport that gets you to the championship. You then need promotion and that needs to be done by the federation, by us or by helping the athletes to get in the right media environment to tell their stories. It’s not because Usain Bolt has won a lot of Olympic medals or his world records that has made him to what he is. That is fantastic, but that’s not what has captured the imagination of the public around. They like the showmanship, they like the fact that he’s got a personality. We need the promotion, but we really need the athletes to allow their own personality to come through.”

RunBlogRun: Lord Coe is correct. Usain Bolt was able to communicate, quite easily and naturally, his love for the sport, his athletic ability and his sense of humor. His ability to hang with the fans, and take incessant selfies had fans waiting for him in all weather conditions. We have many young and not so young stars. A huge part of the change needed is how we embrace social media, live coverage and realize that our sport is becoming less and less important to major media organizations. The IAAF needs to figure that part of the puzzle.