IAAF President Lamine Diack has supported calls from the IOC and other Olympic stakeholders to unite and act quickly to counter threats to the autonomy of the Olympic and sports movement in general.
As a member of the IOC International Relations Commission, President Diack was in Lausanne for a two day summit called the “Autonomy of Sport Conference.”
Seven resolutions were approved by representatives from the IOC, national Olympic committees and international federations gathered at the symposium. Nearly 200 delegates attended the meeting.
It was agreed that the Olympic Movement should “cooperate and work together with governments and international institutions within a framework of mutual respect, to make sport and its benefits available to all citizens of the world”.
President Diack spoke of his own experiences within the worldwide Athletics movement and emphasized that that the tensions and disagreements between sport and government have to be taken very seriously, and can only be managed if the sports movement is unified and adopts a common approach. During the Symposium the importance of good governance at all levels of the Olympic Movement was highlighted as the key to preserving the autonomy of sport and protecting it from government interference.
A draft document was presented to the seminar outlining some basic universal principles of good governance of the Olympic Movement.

The document, which extends to seven chapters and includes 37 line items, will now be refined before being posted on the Olympic Congress Extranet. The entire Olympic Movement will then have the chance to pass comment and make contributions before it goes before the 2009 Olympic Congress in Copenhagen for further discussion.

Sports leaders at the meeting also supported plans to develop the 'Olympic and Sports Network' - what Rogge calls a “one-stop shop on public affairs and autonomy” - on the IOC extranet.

The aim is to facilitate the exchange of information and provide a global analysis “which will be used as a basis for future decisions and actions where necessary”.

IOC President Jacques Rogge highlighted the fact that autonomy of sport is one of five themes of the Olympic Congress in Copenhagen next year.

IAAF