IT\u2019S NOT EASY BEING THE IAAF. Headlines regarding the international governing body haven\u2019t been kind of late, and while the forces of Occupy Monaco haven\u2019t quite yet been mobilized, I can certainly understand some of the frustration that much of the general public is feeling with the sport\u2019s international governing body.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s torch was ignited with the headline-generating false-start DQ of Usain Bolt in Daegu.<\/p>\n
\u201cBolt\u2019s DQ at Worlds illustrates stupidity of new false-start rule,\u201d trumpeted Sports Illustrated<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Chicago Tribune<\/em> said, \u201cBolt and track losers in the sport\u2019s Gong Show.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press chimed in with, \u201cBolt is human; his sport\u2019s rules are not.\u201d<\/p>\n Guess what? From where I sit the respected writers of the esteemed organizations who penned those words are quite simply wrong. Yes, l\u2019affaire-Bolt was perhaps a short-term disaster, but for the overall health of the sport the rule is a good\u2014and needed\u2014one. As we noted in \u201cWe Think\u201d last month, \u201cWe liked the rule when it was introduced and we still like it. Having said that, we think the IAAF should take a step back and revert to the one-on-the-field.\u201d But we think the original everybody-gets-one-rule that some are demanding is counterproductive.<\/p>\n Just when the false-start furor died down, the IAAF found itself in another fine kettle of fish with its new edict about no mixed-sex World Records in road racing (see p. 37). The press once again had a field day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a move that could only have been made by an organization that doesn\u2019t know its public relations ass from its elbow,\u201d said Phil Hersh of the Chicago Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Simon Hart of the London Telegraph<\/em> led with, \u201cHaving plumbed the depths of incompetence with its botched elections at last month\u2019s Congress in Daegu\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoneheaded and heartless. This all I could think of after I heard what had been done to Paula Radcliffe and Deena Kastor,\u201d said Christopher McDougall of the London Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n As right as the IAAF was on the false-start ruling, it\u2019s as wrong\u2014or worse so\u2014in this marathon debacle. The obvious hypocrisy (some call it rampant sexism) that the alphabet-boys are showing in allowing men to have paid professional pacesetters, on the track as well as the road, while at the same time punishing women who happen to be in the same race as men who are as often as not not world-class boggles the mind.<\/p>\n