Coe targets Musk and Zuckerberg talks over ‘pond life’ abuse of female athletes
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Sebastian Coe will demand urgent talks with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to stop “pond life” abusing female sports stars with impunity if he becomes International Olympic Committee president.

Speaking after a week in which  after being approached by a stalker, and  after posting a video of her running on social media, Lord Coe pledged to create a taskforce to find better ways to protect female athletes.

Asked what he made of comments posted on Facebook, Instagram and X attacking women, the World Athletics president,  on 20 March, replied: “It’s pond life. I’ve spoken to many female athletes about it. And some of the stuff that the American shot putter Raven Saunders told me made me want to cry. We’ve got to do more.”

Coe also promised he would deliver a blunt message to Zuckerberg, who is the chief executive of the Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, and Musk, who owns X, if he got the top job in global sports politics. “Come on, sort this out. Because this is just unacceptable. Sadly, it’s not new, but there’s just more of it. However, I think artificial intelligence actually can really help here in turbocharging some of this stuff out.”

Coe also questioned whether sportswashing was a valid term in the modern world, given that every country uses sport to promote its own interests, and said he would be happy for Saudi Arabia to bid for the 2040 Olympics.

“Let’s be open,” he said. “To a greater or lesser degree, everybody does that. You want to show the best of your country. They have 30-year strategies. And I think we sometimes overlook that. I first went to Qatar in the mid-90s, when they had a Junior World Cup in 1997.





Sebastian Coe also said he would not have a problem with Saudi Arabia bidding for the 2040 Olympics. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/Reuters

“And some of those countries have got a much more coherent policy towards sport – and using it to create better opportunities for movement and young people – than other countries that are sitting there saying: ‘Oh well, it’s sportswashing,’ while watching school sport disappear and sport slowly drift off government agenda. So we have got to be a little more even-handed.”

Coe also insisted that he would be relaxed about Saudi Arabia hosting the Games in the autumn rather than summer, because it was inevitable that global warming would push future Olympics away from their traditional slot in July and August.



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