What is it with British ‘knights of the realm’ that they seem to be forever mired in corruption, scandal, and disgrace? Former Olympian Sebastian Coe can never avoid all three of those ‘specialities’, yet like his fellow Lords, Ladies, Sirs, and Dames, he appears to think that sitting high upon that horse means that he can dole out moral judgment or collective punishment. And Russia is still in his sights.

A double Olympic champ over 1,500 m in 1980 and 1984, Coe came through the ‘unusual’ training system of Loughborough University’s George Gandy. Gandy was ‘modernizing’ strength and conditioning for the university rugby team and notorious for his adherence to advances from the US, which reportedly included substances that would subsequently be outlawed.

Coe went on to translate track success to business and political wins, including nabbing a parliamentary seat for Britain’s Conservatives in 1992. He was appointed, or anointed, a Life Peer in 2000 and became Lord Coe. Yet, whether on the track or off, scandal seemed to follow the London-born man.

He returned to global prominence when the Olympic Games were returning to the British capital. The head of the London 2012 Bid Committee and then the London Organizing Committee, he outraged many with his backroom dealing and ability to walk in grey areas to get the games to London. These grey areas included bribes.

After the games, he jogged off to be elected head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics) in 2015. And it was at that moment that any pretense of his being in it........

© RT.com