Division I

The Federation

This division contains:
 
List of 2002-2003 IAAF Executive
Handbook Table of Contents
Handbook Foreword
IAAF Council
History
- The Three Foundation Years 1912-1914 - Officers and Structure
- Regional Development
- The International Olympic Committee
- IAAF Competitions
- World Records
- Photo Finish and Electrical Timekeeping
- Anti-doping
- Amateurism
- Athletics for Women
- IAAF World Rankings
- Race Walking
- Development Programme
- The IAAF Solidarity Meeting Sarajevo
- World Athletics Day
- Internet
- IAAF Honours
- World Championships in Athletics 2001
Schedule of the Iaaf World Athletics Series
Committees
- Technical Committee
- Women's Committee
- Cross-Country and Road Running Committee
- Race Walking Committee
- Medical Committee
- Veteran's Committee
Arbritration Committee
Veterans of the IAAF
IAAF Plaque of Merit
IAAF Area Associations
List of Members

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATIONS

FOUNDED IN 1912

OFFICIAL HANDBOOK 2002-2003

International Association of Athletics Federations
17 rue Princesse Florestine
BP 359 - MC 98007
Monaco Cedex
Telephone: (377) 93 10 88 88 / Facsimile: (377) 93 15 95 15
Internet: http://www.iaaf.org

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FOREWORD

The unanimous vote with which the 43rd IAAF Congress in Edmonton elected me to the IAAF Presidency was, in fact, also a sign of confidence in the way we have tried to encourage greater participation in the management of our great Organisation. For nine days, the Sydney Olympic Games offered an illustration of what our sport has become and what it must remain during the course of this century. Today, the athletics movement is represented in every part of the world, offering young people important life lessons about the benefits of friendly competition and hard work, and, in a minority of cases, the opportunity to earn a living.

To ensure our continuing development, we need to work at strengthening our Association as well as the relationships with our Member Federations: the decision of the Edmonton Congress to change the name of our organisation to The International Association of Athletics Federations reflects this desire.

But the Edmonton Congress also made some significant changes to the Constitution. Not less than 243 constitutional, anti-doping and technical rule change proposals were submitted to the Edmonton delegates. There were heated discussions and tight votes in some cases, while other proposals were carried by consensus. Most of the proposals were construed in order to make the organisation more modern, professional, and efficient and to run competitions more smoothly. Since Edmonton was a Technical Congress, it is no surprise that no fewer than 179 proposals for technical rule changes were considered by Congress, and the vast majority approved.

Since a preface is not the place to go into details, suffice to say that you will find all these changes in this edition of the handbook, whose layout conforms to the "reader-friendly" format first introduced in 1999.

Lamine Diack
IAAF President

New name, new logo, new flag for the IAAF in 2001.

Villa Miraflores
IAAF Presidency and General Secretariat.

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HISTORY

The Three Foundation Years 1912-1914

On July 17th, 1912, two days after the last athletics event of the Olympic Games, a Congress was held in Stockholm for the formation of an International Federation for Amateur Athletics. The following 17 countries were represented at this historic meeting: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. There was an urgent need for an international governing body for Athletics owing to the development of international competitions and the Olympic Games. A universal code of rules and regulations and a common amateur definition acceptable throughout the world had become essential, as well as an authentic register of World and Olympic Records.

Though this meeting in Stockholm was, strictly speaking, an exploratory one, records of the IAAF regard it as the first Congress. Subsequent Congresses up to the 43rd Congress in Edmonton in 2001 - where the IAAF was re-named the International Association of Athletics Federations - have been designated accordingly.

One year later in Berlin (1913), Congress accepted the first Constitution and 34 nations figured on the first membership list. J. Sigfrid Edström (Sweden) was elected President and Kristian Hellström Honorary Secretary. The first technical rules for international competitions were presented in 1914 at the third Congress in Lyon, France, by the new Honorary Secretary, Hilding Kjellman (Sweden), and Members were urged to adopt similar rules for their domestic competitions.

Officers and Structure

In 1930, Bo Ekelund (Sweden) became the third Honorary Secretary-Treasurer - a post he held until 1946. A prominent member of the Rules and Records Committee at that time was Avery Brundage (USA), later to become IOC President. This was the body then responsible for keeping World Records, and this task fell principally to Szilard Szankovits (Hungary) who was also largely responsible for the decision to stage the first European Championships (1934, Turin).

In 1946, the IAAF Headquarters moved from Stockholm to London when Lord Burghley (GB & NI) (later to become the Marquess of Exeter) took over from J. Sigfrid Edström (Sweden) as President. E.J.H. "Billy" Holt (GB & NI) was Honorary Secretary-Treasurer until after the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games,when Donald Pain (GB & NI) took over this responsibility, a position he held for 17 years until Frederick Holder succeeded him in 1970. At the 1976 Montreal Congress, Adriaan Paulen succeeded Lord Exeter as President. The position of Secretary-Treasurer was split :"Fred" Holder (GB & NI) was re-elected Honorary Treasurer and the new Council appointed John Holt (GB & NI) as General Secretary. Upon the retirement of Adriaan Paulen (Netherlands) in 1981, Dr Primo Nebiolo (Italy) became the IAAF President, only the fourth person to hold this office in 80 years, and he was re-elected in 1984, 1987, 1991, 1995 and 1999. After the death of Dr. Primo Nebiolo, in November 1999, Council appointed Senior Vice President Lamine Diack (Senegal) as acting President until the 2001 Congress in Edmonton, when Mr. Diack was duly elected as President. Robert Stinson (GB & NI) has been Honorary Treasurer since 1984 and, following Council's decision, Council Member István Gyulai (Hungary) was appointed as General Secretary at the end of 1991, being reconfirmed in 1995 and 1999. The steady growth of the Association accelerated in the last decades; 210 member countries are currently affiliated. The representatives of the Member Federations gather every two years for the IAAF Congress which is the IAAF's ultimate decision making body.

Regional Development

Continental and Regional Games and Championships, which help in assessing overall progress and provide an incentive to all countries within the group, continued to develop. From their foundation in 1934, the European Championships were under the control of the European Committee of the IAAF.

At the 1968 Congress, however, the Constitution was amended to provide for the setting up of Continental Area Associations within the IAAF similar to the South American Confederation which has successfully operated, for the benefit of athletics in South America, since the early 1920s. The European Athletic Association (EAA) was formed in 1969, its constitution being ratified at the 1970 IAAF Congress.

The Statutes of the Oceania Regional Group were approved at the Munich Congress (1972) and those of the African Amateur Athletic Confederation (AAAC) and the Asian Amateur Athletic Association (AAAA) were approved by the Rome Congress (1974). Finally in Barcelona 1989, the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association, founded in Puerto Rico one year earlier, was ratified by Congress.

A further major change in the Constitution in 1968 was to include in the Council a representative of each of the six Continental Areas, elected by the Members in those Area Groups. This ensures a truly world-wide representation in the Council, the size of which was increased in 1976 to 19, with the addition of four Vice Presidents. In 1984, the Council was further increased to 21, 23 in 1987, 25 in 1991 and 27 in 1995. The 43rd IAAF Congress in Edmonton decided to consider the General Secretary as ex officio Member of the Council, in addition to the 27 elected members.

The International Olympic Committee

As early as 1921, the IAAF was in close contact with the IOC. Our fourth Congress was held that year in Geneva immediately before the IOC Congress at the same venue. Co-operation with the IOC and Olympic Games Organising Committees to ensure the successful staging of athletics events at the Olympic Games has always been a major feature of the IAAF's activity.

A new dimension to our links with other international sporting bodies was when in 1985 the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) was created with IAAF President, Dr. Primo Nebiolo, being elected as the first ASOIF President, to which he was reelected in 1989, 1993 and 1997.

The link was further strengthened following the appointment of Dr. Primo Nebiolo as an IOC member in March 1992. Following the death of Dr. Nebiolo, the then acting IAAF President Lamine Diack was admitted to the IOC in December 1999. As of now, three more IAAF Council Members are also IOC Members: Nawal El Moutawakel, Prof. Arne Ljungqvist and Sergey Bukba.

IAAF Competitions

Up to and including Moscow 1980, the Olympic Games were at the same time the official World Championships in Athletics. IAAF Rule 10, discussed at the 1913 Congress in Berlin, stipulated that the athletics competitions of the Olympic Games would effectively be World Championships. Every winner could be regarded as World Champion.

The Games apart, the IAAF World Race Walking Cup and the IAAF World Cross Country Championships are the two oldest events in the association's calendar. The Lugano Trophy, forerunner of the World Race Walking Cup, first took place in 1961. The International Cross Country Championships began as early as 1903, but did not come under the auspices of the IAAF until seventy years later.

In 1976, the IAAF organised a World Championship for the men's 50 km Race Walking, as the event had been dropped from the Olympic Games programme of that year.

The following year brought the first IAAF World Cup in Düsseldorf, and in 1978 the historic decision was made to organise World Championships in Athletics separate from the Olympic Games, in five year's time. Also in 1978, the first in a brief series of "IAAF Golden Events", the Golden Mile was held in Tokyo. Eleven more such events, all for men, were staged until 1982.

It was in the 1980s that the IAAF's Competition Programme expanded greatly. In 1980, the IAAF Council selected Helsinki as venue for its first World Championships. The year also saw two more special World Championship events which were missing from the Moscow timetable - the women's 3000 metres and 400 metre hurdles. It was to be the last time that the IAAF would need to compensate for the limitations of the Olympic Programme which since has been identical with the programme of the IAAF World Championships. In August 1983 the first IAAF World Championships were held and, coming after two successive Olympic Games spoiled by boycotts, were a huge success. Helsinki saw participation by the largest global representation in sports history.

In late 1983, the IAAF World 10 km Road Race Championship for Women was held in San Diego. This developed into a regular World Championship event, as did the 1985 World Indoor Games in Paris, forerunner of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics. In 1985, the IAAF identified a need for all these events to be coordinated and the "World Athletics Series" was born as a package of IAAF events. The first cycle, from 1985 to 1987, included the inaugural IAAF World Marathon Cup, the IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics and the IAAF Grand Prix Final.

The Grand Prix emerged from another development of 1983 when the IAAF's Amateurism and Eligibility Working Group recommended the concept of International Invitation Meetings. Two years later, the IAAF launched the Grand Prix, linking the best of these invitation meetings and culminating with a final at the end of the season with awards for the season's best performers.

The second World Athletics Series cycle, covering the period 1988 to 1991, comprised 22 separate IAAF events. At the end of this package, it was decided to hold the IAAF World Championships every two years. Further innovations continued into the 1990s. Throughout that decade, the IAAF World Cross Challenge was staged, linking the world's leading cross country races on an annual basis. The IAAF World Road Relay Championships were introduced in 1992 and held on three further occasions. The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships (men and women) replaced the 10/15 km road race for women from 1992 to be held annually, though the World Cup was switched back to every four years from 1994. From 1998 the IAAF Golden League and the IAAF World Combined Events Challenge were introduced. Biennial World Youth Championships in Athletics started in 1999 and received great support. Throughout these times of huge growth in IAAF competitions, the link with the Olympic Games has remained strong with the Association's close involvement in the organisation of the programme of track and field, which remains the centrepiece of the Olympics. At a joint meeting of the IOC Executive Board and IAAF Council in August 2001, it was agreed that the IAAF flag would also fly alongside the Olympic flag at the Athens Games in 2004.

World Records

In the inaugural list of World Records published in 1914, there were 53 Men's Records of Running, Hurdling and Relay Racing, 30 for Race Walking and 12 for Field Events, including the Decathlon. No records for women existed at that time. Since then, changes have been made, so that the list is now considerably altered. A major change was made at the 30th Congress in Montreal in 1976, when imperial distances, except the 1 Mile (Men and Women), were deleted. There are now 23 Men's records for Running, Hurdling and Relays, plus 4 Race Walking events and 9 Field events, including the Decathlon. The Women's World Record list comprises 22 for Running, Hurdling and Relays, including the 3000m Steeplechase (as approved by the 1997 Congress and implemented in 1999), 3 for Race Walking events, and 9 for Field events, including the Pole Vault and Hammer Throw (as approved by the 1993 Congress and implemented in 1995) and the Heptathlon.

In 1987, World Records for Junior Men and Junior Women were inaugurated and also the first list of World Indoor Records was published, again for Men and Women. More than 2,500 marks have been approved as world records by the IAAF by the end of 2001.

Photo Finish and Electrical Timekeeping

In 1926, the Dutch Athletic Federation (KNAU) presented the first "slow motion" apparatus for photo-finish judging, to eliminate the human factor from finish judging and timing. This was used in 1928 at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, and in 1930 electrically timed performances were accepted for World Record purposes. Since January 1977, for records up to and including 400 metres, only performances timed by fully automatic electrical timing have been accepted. Since January 1st, 1981 for all races up to 10,000m inclusive, times are recorded to 1/100th of a second when electrically timed. The latest timing device approved by the IAAF is a system which incorporates a video camera.

Anti-doping

As early as 1928 at the Amsterdam Congress, the first Anti-doping Rule was approved and incorporated in the Handbook. Doping Control now is conducted at all major events. The IAAF works together with the IOC and the other Olympic Federations with whom a joint declaration against doping was signed in 1989. In 1989 also random testing outside competition was initiated, and this has become a regular feature of the IAAF programme, both at national and international level.

In fact, it has been made a condition of Membership to the IAAF that a Member Federation conducts also out-of-competition doping controls, and only athletes undergoing a number of out-of-competition tests are eligible to receive Competition Awards at IAAF events.

Amateurism

The Eligibility Rules have come under close scrutiny in the last quarter of the last century. Considerable amendments approved by the IAAF Congress in 1982 (Athens) in the first instance and in 1999 (Seville) allow athletes to receive payments for participation and performance in international competitions. It was decided to retain the word "amateur" in the title of the IAAF until the Congress of 2001, when the IAAF's name was changed from the "International Amateur Athletic Federation" to the "International Association of Athletics Federations". Similarly, at its Congress in April 2001, the African Amateur Athletic Confederation decided also to drop the term "amateur" from its name.

Advertising within the arena and on the athletes themselves is now allowed, under strict control, and a completely revised Rule 18 details these conditions. In 1991, Congress voted to accept as eligible athletes professional sportsmen from other sports.

At the end of March 1996, the IAAF Council took a decision of historical importance for the Athletics Movement. It agreed that "Competition Awards" would be made available to top-placed athletes, in addition to the Grand Prix, also at the IAAF's World Athletics Series events.

Athletics for Women

By 1924, a separate Federation governing Women's Athletics had been founded, the FSFI. At the Paris Congress (1924) the IAAF supported the FSFI's request for the inclusion of five Women's events in the Amsterdam Olympic Games - 100m, 800m, 4 x 100m, High Jump and Discus. Since these early days, Women's Athletics has continued to produce ever-improving performances in ever greater depth. Nowadays, the programme of men's and women's events at indoor championships is identical, while at outdoor World Championships there are just three events for men only, the 3000m Steeplechase, Decathlon and 50 km Race Walk. The newest championship events for women, the Pole Vault and Hammer Throw, are also proving to be some of the most popular events at all levels.

The IAAF Development Programme now regularly focuses on Women's Track & Field, with specialist symposia, courses and workshops held at the Regional Development Centres. In 1995 the IAAF Congress elected Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco) and Abby Hoffman (Canada) as the first two women members to the IAAF Council. Both were re-elected in 1999.

Following a proposal of the IAAF Women's Committee and the decision of the IAAF Council, 1998 was declared the International Year of Women in Athletics, with the aim to celebrate the history of women in our sport, to promote all aspects of women's athletics on a world-wide basis and to develop the role of women also in the fields of administration, officiating and coaching.

IAAF World Rankings

From June 2000, the IAAF has published a series of the IAAF World Rankings, listing the world's leading athletes by event and on an overall basis. These fast-moving lists - available throughout the outdoor season on the IAAF Website - are evaluated by considering both performances and placings in major events. A corresponding points score is computed for each athlete, enabling interesting comparisons to be made across the range of athletic disciplines.

Race Walking

After years of research the IAAF Congress in 1995 accepted a new definition for Race Walking (Rule 230) noting that further study was necessary. Women's race walking continues to gain ground, and the creation of the World Race Walking Cup has encouraged new countries to extend their race walking programme for women. The 10,000m Walk for Women, featuring from 1985 in all major IAAF Cups, Games and Championships, was added to the Olympic Programme in 1992 and the distance has been changed to 20km from 1999. Race Walking events, however, have been deleted from the programme of international indoor championships.

Development Programme

The IAAF development activities date back to the mid-seventies when the Congress in Montreal approved the Technical Aid Programme proposed by Dr Jozsef Sir (Hungary) who later became the first director of the programme. Since 1985 a network of ten Regional Development Centres, covering all six IAAF Areas, has supported the work of the Member Federations by providing a focal point for the programme of development activities in their region. In accordance with the declaration of the late Dr. Nebiolo that the nineties shall be the Decade of Development, these years saw an increase of development activities all over the world.

Since the implementation of the IAAF Development Programme in 1990, the IAAF through its RDCs has offered to the Member Federations a diverse programme of activities such as study courses, competition consultancies, seminars and workshops for coaches, technical officials, competition organisers and other key federation personnel. More than 10,000 specialists have benefited from these activities worldwide. The IAAF also provides information through a growing number of technical publications, posters and audio-visual material. In close co-operation with Olympic Solidarity and other international partners, the IAAF has recently started to set up IAAF recognised High Performance Training Centres of which nine are operational around the world.

The IAAF Solidarity Meeting Sarajevo

The IAAF knowingly transcended the strict boundaries of Athletics when, in September 1996, organised a Solidarity Meeting in Sarajevo, helped rebuild the athletics facilities in the Olympic Stadium and brought a hundred of Top International Athletes to the beleaguered city in its first major sports event since the end of hostilities, to demonstrate its commitment to peace and understanding between nations.

World Athletics Day

In 1996, the IAAF organised the first annual World Athletics Day to unite youngsters around the world in a spirit of competition and common endeavour. Hundreds of thousands of junior athletes participated in athletics competitions on this occasion to earn the right to participate in a draw which took two boys and two girls from each IAAF continental area to see the world's top athletes competing in the Atlanta Olympics (1996). The yearly editions since then have been equally successful.

Internet

The IAAF Website was launched on May 17,1996, containing thousands of pages of information about the IAAF. A real-time result service and up-to-the-minute reports and photographs service became available, including start lists, results and general information on the venues and events, for all IAAF World Athletics Series events, for the first time in 1997. The IAAF Website has become a daily electronic newspaper making abundant information about Athletics available on-line.

IAAF Honours

The award of the IAAFVeteran Pin was instituted in 1928, with 12 initial recipients. Further IAAF honours, such as the IAAF Golden Order of Merit, the IAAF Silver Order of Merit and the IAAF Plaque of Merit, were created later.

World Championships in Athletics 2001

In 2001 the World Championships in Athletics were staged at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, where 1,677 athletes from 189 countries competed for the medals and the US$ 7,044,000 prize money, in 46 events. Twenty-three countries shared gold medals, compared with 14 in Helsinki in 1983; a total of 42 countries won medals (25 countries in 1983). The winning marks were better than those at the 2000 Olympic Games in 27 of the 46 events. For their excellent work, the IAAF Silver of Merit was awarded to the organisers.

The next edition will be staged in Paris in 2003.

The IAAF World Athletics Series, which includes old and new competitions, linked with ever-increasing athletic activities organised in all continents by IAAF Members, underlines the constant aim of the IAAF to establish closer links with the entire Athletics Family, including Area Associations, Athletes, Organisers, Coaches and all other relevant parties, as part of the endeavours to further promote our sport and establish friendly and loyal competitions to the benefit of athletics, peace and understanding between the nations throughout the world, and to organise top level world competitions throughout the year.

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SCHEDULE OF THE IAAF WORLD ATHLETICS SERIES

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