World athletics' governing body, the IAAF, is to rebrand as World Athletics, it was announced Sunday. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was initially founded in 1912 as the International Amateur Athletic Federation. The body, currently presided over by Britain's two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist Sebastian Coe, took its present name in 2001 and World Athletics should be operational from October.
"'World Athletics' builds upon the organisation's restructuring and governance reform agenda of the past four years to represent a modern, more creative and positive face for the sport," said Coe, who took over from disgraced long-time head Lamine Diack in August 2015. Coe said the IAAF Council, meeting in Monaco, agreed it made "the sport more accessible to a wider audience while giving the global governing body the opportunity to more clearly communicate its mission as the leader of the world's most participatory sport".