Disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack dies at 88
Diack and his son, Papa Massata Diack, were convicted on charges connected to the Russian doping scandal of 2015
Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now known as World Athletics, has passed away at his home in Senegal at the age of 88. Diack, who served as president from 1999 to 2015, was put on trial last year for corruption, money laundering and breach of trust.
Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, said his father died at home of natural causes. Papa Massata, who worked as a marketing consultant for the IAAF, was put on trial alongside his father and then jailed for five years after he was found guilty of taking money paid to the organization and using it for his own companies, to the tune of $15 million.
According to a CBC report at the time of Diack’s trial, prosecutors accused Diack of accepting millions of dollars to clear the names of athletes who had doped, covering up their test results and allowing them to continue competing, even in the London 2012 Olympics. Diack was sentenced to four years in prison in September 2020, but got his sentence shortened to two years, and ultimately remained on house arrest until he was released on bail.
According to Inside the Games, Judge Rose-Marie Hunault, who sentenced Diack, said his actions “undermined the values of athletics and the fight against doping” and argued he “violated the rules of the game.”
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