Another Athletics Scandal Breaks As Swede Abeba Tests Positive

The latest Athletics scandal breaks as a former world champion over 1,500m tests positive for a banned substance, but with the French investigators looking into corruption and WADA insisting on better scrutiny does the IAAF have anything to look forward to? The Zika Olympics, perhaps?

Swede Fails Dope Test

• Abeba Aregawi positive
• Banned indefinitely
• B-sample to be tested

If you like to bet on sports in Sweden at ComeOn Sportsbook the chances are you're familiar with the corruption and doping scandals that have swept through the world of competitive sports like a shoal of sharks in a kiddies' swimming pool. The FIFA scandal still rumbles on despite the election of a new president, the world of tennis is still in denial about how seriously to take it, and Athletics? Athletics scandals are now ten-a-penny and they just keep on coming.

The French are investigating not just the IAAF, it's disgraced (and arrested) President Diack and his criminal son, but are now also probing into claims that they may have had an unhealthy influence over the bidding and voting process within the IOC as it pertains to the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics with Qatar once again at the center of possible corruption, this time an athletics scandal, that perverted the course of the process to select a host nation.

The Qataris deny all charged, Tokyo finds any allegations against it puzzling and once again we are directed to look back towards the athletics scandals that rise from doping rather than worry our pretty little heads about how much money in backhanders, bribes and other corrupt payments were made by host nation candidates to members of the IOC. The IOC seems willing to sacrifice the careers of the competitors to save their own using the latest doping crisis to smokescreen their own woes.

Swede Asks For B Sample Re-Test

The latest Athletics scandal to break concerns Abeba Aregawi, who those of you that take advantage of Swedish gambling laws to bet on Athletics will quickly recognize as being the Ethiopian born Swede that was World Champion over 1,500 meters back in 2013. Failing an out-of-competition urine test conducted by the IAAF, who themselves failed to mention which substance she'd tested positive for or where and when the test actually took place, Abeba Aregawi was suspended indefinitely.

“It is with dismay and with extreme disappointment we have to make this statement, said Stefan Olsson, General secretary of the Swedish Athletics Federation, “We are totally opposed to all forms of cheating, doping and illicit substances. We also have zero tolerance and this is totally unacceptable.” Which was a bit of a shift from just two days earlier when he'd clearly defended her when allegations about her tax affairs surfaced in the local media.

Abeba, 1,500m indoor champion, has naturally asked for her B sample to be tested claiming she has done nothing wrong, and it remains to be seen if that test will clear her name. however some would say the damage is already done with world champions, medal winners and record holders all seemingly just as likely as each other to have been making use of some sort of professional doping to enhance their performance. Athletics scandals like these just keep the pressure on the sport.

Can Sebastian Coe clean up the IAAF? (Photo: mirror.co.uk)

IAAF Has Business & Athletics Scandals To Face

Perhaps the IAAF and its cohorts are gambling news stories like this will make it appear they're doing whatever they can to clean up their act, however with WADA less than satisfied with their progress and the new front of business-related corruption being investigated by the French it would appear that Athletics scandals will not be so easily swept under the carpet and underlined as was the Salt Lake City bribery affair. The question is what can the sport's authorities do to move on?

Sebastien Coe, former British middle distance runner, has taken over from Diack but the whistle blowing leak on blood test records from major competitions dating back a couple of decades have shown that the scale of the problem he faces is mammoth if any faith is to be restored in the sport so riddled with business and athletics scandals ranging from dope cheats to doping cover ups by national authorities and the very head of the IAAF himself.

Sponsors are already jumping ship, Adidas was first to go but Nestles has joined them since, big names like Michael Johnson (world record holding sprinter) described it as being “more serious” than the troubles at FIFA, and WADA thinks “corruption was embedded” in the IAAF, so what hope does does it have when the next big event (the Rio Olympics) is going to be a two week advert for mosquito spray, birth control and medical checks thanks to the Zika Virus? Athletics scandals may well the least of its immediate problems.