New International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe today began to roll out one of his key election manifesto pledges when he announced the full details of the $22 million Olympic Athletics Dividend.
The scheme offers $100,000 over four years to all 215 members of the IAAF to help them fund development programmes.
Donna Watson the President of the Bermuda National Athletics Association said, “This is a great initiative and the BNAA will definitely take advantage of this as we have a few possible things coming up next year and this grant will definitely assist in making then a reality for us.”
“President Coe did mention this while he was campaigning and it is great to see that he is fulfilling this promise,” continued Watson.
The proposal by Coe to distribute half of the money that the IAAF receives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was seen as a key factor in the Briton's successful campaign to succeed Lamine Diack as President, beating Ukraine's former pole vault world record holder Sergey Bubka at the election in Beijing in August.
“How the IAAF invests the quadrennial fee received from the IOC to better serve its Member Federations was one of the major pillars of my election manifesto to become IAAF President,” said Coe.
“This fund will be financed on a total of about $22 million over a four-year period which represents approximately half of the dividend received by the IAAF from the IOC.
“The fund, which we are calling the ‘IAAF Olympic Athletics Dividend’, has been put in place to assist Member Federations in designing and implementing structured and sustainable projects to develop athletics in their countries.
“The programme offers Member Federations assistance to develop and improve athletics where it matters most, with the full support of the IAAF.
“The IAAF must engage and work together with its members, listen to their needs and implement tailored solutions at a local and regional level.
"Only by doing that will we secure an exciting, prosperous future for athletics."
The budget of the Dividend – which is in addition to all existing IAAF development grants – will be distributed on an equal share basis of $25,000 per year, although several countries, including Russia and the United States, have already announced they will waive their right to receive the money so it can redistributed to smaller countries.
Watson concluded, “It will help several small countries especially with their athletics program. What I really like about it is that it can be used in several different areas (eg. not just athlete preparation but also staging national and regional competitions).”
The idea of the Dividend is to help fund projects such as those involving construction, refurbishment or maintenance of facilities; purchase or hire of equipment; preparation and training of athletes, coaches and team officials including travel support; staging of national and regional competitions; and the delivery of development and talent identification programmes in schools and clubs.
The IAAF will carefully approve the projects/programmes submitted by the Member Federations in a transparent and thorough process in which the value and quality will be assessed, they have claimed.
Last week Coe announced he is in the process of creating a new integrity unit, another key election manifesto promise, as he publicly unveiled an overhaul of the world governing body's advisory structures.
