World athletics chief Sebastian Coe said Wednesday he wants to make the sport well represented in school curriculum so that running can be recognized as a daily exercise for young people.
Coe, who has been leading the International Association of Athletics Federations since 2015, landed in South Korea on Tuesday for the 80th Congress of the International Sports Press Association, which will run until Saturday in Seoul and PyeongChang, the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
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Sebastian Coe (L), head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), poses for a photo with Chung Hee-don, the chief of the Korea Sports Press Union, before his press conference in Seoul on May 10, 2017. (Yonhap) |
"Strength of our sport is directly related to impact of athletics in school," he said at a press conference in Seoul. "We do need to build on one very strong asset that our sport has and that is more people run recreationally than they do any form of exercise in the world."
Coe said he met with the Korea Association of Athletics Federations officials Tuesday and talked about athletics in school programs.
"It's also very important in the lives of young people that exercise is seen as a part of their everyday balance," he said.
"One of my challenges as the president of athletics is to make sure across the globe that athletics is well represented in the curriculum in schools."
Coe said attracting young people to athletics through school programs will eventually help South Korea to become a strong performer in track and field.
"You want top class athletes who can encourage and excite young people to take up the sport, and they are the role models and they are the people who can attract others to shop window," he said.
"And that is the product of world class coaching, good funding and good facility. But for that to make it happen, you also need young people want to be involved in the sport in the first place and to be encouraged through schools."
Coe, the organizing chief for the 2012 London Olympic Games, said he doesn't have specific advice for the local organizers and South Koreans here, who are preparing for the Winter Olympic Games -- only that they should focus on the athletes.
"Recognize the quality of the event and your ability to test and to test and to test again to make sure that you have assessing eye for details and throughout that process, the athlete remains absolutely rooted in the heart of the project," he said. "If you get it right for the athletes, then you'll probably going to get at least 90 percent of the project right."
With South Korean having a leadership change with new president Moon Jae-in, Coe said the organizers will need some "political support" to make the successful Olympics.
"The great asset of the Games is that it tends to bring people together," he said. "It will be wrong of me to make comments about South Korea's political structure, but I there is a broad point that I've recognized having spent seven years as part of the team delivering the Games is that you need some political support from the government and also support from the opposition parties." (Yonhap)
