Lord Coe will demand that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg “sort” the “life of the pond” abuse stars of women’s sport on social networks if it becomes president of the International Olympic Committee.
The world boss of athletics has also promised to find better ways to protect female athletes from the “horror waterfall” which awaits them when they find glory, following the recent harassment of Emma Raducanu.
COE spoke less than two weeks before the CIO presidential election, when he hopes to succeed Thomas Bach in the most powerful work in sport.
The British athletes Eilish McColgan and Georgia Hunter Bell spoke this week of the “dark side” of social media, which allowed them to shame online trolls – and COE wants urgent discussions with technology giants to attack the problem.
Asked about his message to X owner Musk and Facebook and Instagram chief Zuckerberg, he said: “Sort this. It is simply unacceptable. We have to make more a whole bunch.
“I saw the distress it caused. It is the life of the pond and I have spoken to many female athletes. Some of the things, you just want to cry while listening to it.
Lord Coe is impatient to repair these female sport stars on social networks if it becomes president of the IOC
If he becomes the president of the IOC, Coe wants to talk to the owner X Elon Musk (L) and Facebook and the Instagram chief Mark Zuckerberg (R)
“I remember an athlete who said to me,” I don’t care “. And I said,” You should worry about it, you should be really angry with these things “.
“What you don’t want is that people just think you get to the highest level in female sport and that’s sort of what’s going on. We must not accept it as a kind of standard practice.
“It’s not new, but there are just more. There is a huge element of social media which is in fact an act of cowardice. That said, things you can probably say because it is anonymous and you wouldn’t say it in someone.
When asked if he would speak directly with Musk and Zuckerberg, Coe said: “Absolutely. We have to talk. You have technology there. AI can be very useful for leading some of these things.
In his work as president of world athletics, Coe also worked recently to approach the question of sexist violence after the runner of the Uruguayan marathon Rebecca Cheptgei was murdered by his ex-friendly friend last year.
The revelation that the Raducanu tennis star was followed by a fan fixed in Dubai questioned the safety of the sports in question – and Coe said: `It is essential that women think that sport is a safe space.
“You cannot have young athletes thinking that the second you get a public exhibition that it comes to you as a horror cascade.”
Meanwhile, Coe says he is ready to move the Olympic Games outside his traditional summer niche, insisting that climate change means that the usual window of July and August is no longer suitable.
The British athlete Eilish McColgan spoke this week of the `dark side ” of social media
The recent harassment of Emma Raducanu has highlighted the problems that the female athlete can face
Coe would host an offer in Saudi Arabia for the Olympic Games which, if successful, would mean that the event takes place in winter.
It would also host an offer from Saudi Arabia for games which, if successful, would mean that the event takes place in winter.
“We will have to have a readjustment of the global calendar,” said Coe. “This is the only thing we are going to have to approach and we should have done it earlier.
“With climate change, can we ask athletes a lot, even Budapest or Paris, to run in August?” No, it doesn’t work.
Coe has already pushed the next two editions of the world athletics championships – in Tokyo this year and in Beijing in 2027 – to September.
The Olympic Games took place last time in September 2000 in Sydney. But Coe would be happy that the matches were even later if Saudi Arabia had won the offer for 2040 – like the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar was moved in November and December.
“We had a World Cup in Qatar, which was probably the most successful,” he said. “We had the world championships in Qatar which went well in October and, in terms of athletes’ performance, they were the best of all time.”
The next Olympic Games are in Los Angeles in July 2028, which will force the coe to work closely with Donald Trump. When asked if he would be happy to take care of the American president of division, he said: “Yes. I cannot believe that he will not want these games to be a huge success.
“Games are larger than any individual. It is not a foreign landscape for me. I had really fiery conversations in host cities with political leaders.