世界陸連コー会長、ドーピング容認大会を「ばかげた話」と一蹴

【グラスゴーＡＦＰ＝時事】ワールドアスレティックス（世界陸連）のセバスチャン・コー会長は２月２９日、運動能力向上薬の使用を容認する大会「エンハンスト・ゲームズ（Ｅｎｈａｎｃｅｄ Ｇａｍｅｓ）」について、ばかげた話だと一蹴した。（写真はワールドアスレティックス＜世界陸連＞のセバスチャン・コー会長）
　エンハンスト・ゲームズは、五輪イヤー以外の年にアスリートの収入を増やす目的で、２０２３年に英ロンドンに拠点を置く豪実業家のアロン・デスーザ氏が創設した。実施競技は陸上、水泳、体操、筋力、格闘技の五つで、第１回大会の場所と日時は未定。ウサイン・ボルト（ジャマイカ）が持つ陸上男子１００メートルの世界記録を破った選手には、少なくとも賞金１００万ドル（約１億５０００万円）が与えられることになっている。
　世界反ドーピング機関（ＷＡＤＡ）のルール対象とはならないが、ＷＡＤＡは大会について「危険で無責任なコンセプト」だと警告している。
　英グラスゴーで１日に開幕する世界室内陸上選手権を控えた記者会見で、コー会長はエンハンスト・ゲームズについての見解を聞かれると、言葉を濁さずに「ばかげた話じゃないか？」と話し、「全く、わくわくできない」と述べた。
　「メッセージは一つだけだ。あの大会に参加したいと感じる愚か者がいて、それが伝統的かつ哲学的なこちら側の競技者だとしたら、彼らは追放され、長い間資格停止となるだろう」
　一方、デスーザ氏によると「陸上米代表のトップ選手を含め、パリ五輪に参加予定の大勢のアスリートから問い合わせがあった」といい、昨年の発表以来、これまでに９００人のアスリートがエンハンスト・ゲームズに興味を示しているという。
　世界水泳選手権の競泳男子１００メートル自由形で２０１１、１３年に連覇を達成したジェームズ・マグヌッセン（オーストラリア）氏は、同大会に参加する初のビッグネームとなっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/03/01-18:39）

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe on Thursday dismissed the Enhanced Games, a proposed Olympic-style event where doping will be allowed.
The Enhanced Games was founded by Australian businessman Aron D'Souza in 2023 with the aim of boosting athletes' incomes in non-Olympic years.
The Games are planned to include athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and combat sports, none of which would be subject to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules.
No date or venue for the event has yet been set.
WADA dubbed the Enhanced Games a dangerous and irresponsible concept.
When asked for his opinion of the proposed Games, Coe did not mince his words.
Well it's bollocks, isn't it? Coe said at a press conference ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships that start on Friday in Glasgow.
I can't really get excited about it.
There's only one message and that is if anybody is moronic enough to feel that they want to take part in that, and they are from the traditional, philosophical end of our sport, they'll get banned and they'll get banned for a long time.
- No sleepless nights -
Coe, a strong anti-doping advocate, added: I'm sure there are crazy things happening in other sectors, we occasionally get them.
I really don't get sleepless nights over it. It's not going to be a page turner, is it?
Enhanced Games founder D'Souza told the BBC that athletes had contacted him keen to make some real money during non-Olympic years.
Excellence deserves to be rewarded. It is unfortunate that our Olympians earn so little, he said, lambasting what he called a corrupt International Olympic Committee whose members lived in opulence.
There are a lot of athletes who are going to compete at the Paris Olympics, including some of the top Team USA track and field athletes who have reached out to me.
Because, let's be honest, they're flipping burgers to provide for themselves, and financially it just doesn't work for them.
So they're very excited to compete at the Enhanced Games to make some real money and have an opportunity to grow their fame, to monetise and practise their sport in the three years that the Olympics won't be happening.
D'Souza added that steps would be taken to minimise risks to athletes' health.
There's of course concern about health and safety, and I always underline the fact that everything will be done under clinical supervision, he told BBC.
The best thing to do is to enhance yourself with clinical advice, with clinical supervision, and that is much safer.
Since its announcement last year, D'Souza says there have been 900 athletes who have registered an interest in Enhanced competition.
Prize money on offer includes at least $1m (£788,000) on the table for the first enhanced athlete to publicly break Usain Bolt's (100m) world record.
James Magnussen, an Australian swimmer who won gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and is a two-time 100m freestyle world champion, was unveiled as the first major name to sign up for the Games.
Magnussen vowed to come out of retirement and juice to the gills in his bid to break the 50m freestyle world record, all for the $1m prize money on offer.