If boxing can survive post Mohammed Ali, athletics will after Usain Bolt: Sebastian Coe

You will understand I am not in a position to discuss particular elements or subjects of external reports. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is looking at issues around some national challenges and the IAAF ethics committee is looking at specific allegations made in the media. I shouldn’t actually know what the outcome is likely to show because they are independent. But rest assured, once we receive those reports and we have digested them we will very seriously look at the consequences.

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An Indian athlete is yet to win a medal at track and field at the Olympics. What is your personal opinion about this?

Statistically, it is tougher for any athlete to win a medal in the Olympics and the World Championships than in any other sport in the world. We should recognize that this is a very tough sport. For the last 20 years every championship I have gone to I have treasured a photo with the Indian team. I have witnessed over the past few years a new level of ambition in Indian track and field and I think the Commonwealth Games hosted in Delhi made a difference. Please don’t have the idea that every country in the world is winning medals in track and field. But it is right to have an ambition and I think that it (India winning a medal) is not very far away.

Kenya and Jamaica have done phenomenally well recently. What can developing nations learn from their athletics programme?

I think often one of the most important ingredients is that quality and presence of track and field in school. In Kenya and Jamaica there is a very strong school programme. One of my focuses is not just to speak to sports ministers but also to sign memorandums of understanding and spend time with education ministers who have the budget and ability to influence how track and field can be included in the curriculum. I had gone to Jamaica recently and I saw 50,000 people watching school and high school competitions.

Do you think the allegations of widespread doping has put extra pressure on someone like Usain Bolt to restore the image of the sport?

Our sport tests more than any other sport. Since 2003-2004 we have tested 19,000 athletes. Every other athlete who went to Daegu, Moscow, Beijing was tested, Every Jamaican athlete — the top six to eight in respective events — was tested six to seven times before the London Games. Bolt is the most tested athlete on the planet. We must encourage the clean athletes to believe that we are always in their corner.

India has also not been untouched by doping so in your discussion with the Athletics Federation of India will you address how to cope with the issue here?

I know how seriously the Indian federation takes this and I have had discussions with them as I have had with other federations. We are not drug testers to the world. The WADA has that responsibility. However, athletics created blood passports, the arbitration panel, the best testing facilities and accredited laboratories. Many others sports look upon us as an exemplar. We play a high price for the amount of testing we do. If we don’t test we don’t catch. I would rather have the embarrassment of a positive test than knowing we weren’t doing enough with regard to testing to weed out those who cheat.

Bolt says he is going to retire next year. How will you sustain the popularity of the sport after that?

We need to make sure people in our sport and those beyond our sport know that we have some of the most extremely talented male and female athletes in very discipline and our sport is not only about Bolt. We have David Rudisha (800 metres Olympic champ) and Valerie Adams (shot-put double Olympic champ). Our sport won’t come to an end when Bolt retires. I am a boxing fan and I remember the kind of conversations boxing was having in the 60s and 70s. ‘What on earth will we do when Mohammed Ali retires? But Floyd Mayweather, Marvin Haggler and Tommy Hearns came along. We will also have great athletes coming along. Not since Ali has any competitor captured the imagination as Bolt has. Our responsibility is now to promote the other athletes so that the world knows them.

What would you have become if not an athlete?

I would have loved to be a footballer but I probably would not have been good at it. Maybe even a cricketer.

You have been a Chelsea fan. If you were Roman Abrahimovic would you sack Mourinho now?

I have been a life long fan of Chelsea. I watched them on Saturday (loss to Southampton). Jose Mourinho is the most talented coach in the world and he is the best coach Chelsea has ever had. I hope he is there for many, many years to come. I am sure he will be. I am a complete and total Mourinho supporter.

If not Chelsea which club would you support?

I was brought up in Sheffield so I have an affection for Sheffield Wednesday. But I was born in London so Chelsea was my first club.

You have Indian roots as your maternal grandfather was from here. Do you have any traits you would call ‘Indian’?

I like to think so but that is for other people to say. I can be calm about things and very laid back. I enjoy family time very much. I did say that my first official visit to a member federation would be India and I said that with an emotional appeal because my grandfather was Indian and my mother was born in Delhi and she lived in India till she was 10. And it was in large part in her memory as well that I wanted to make a visit to a country that has played such a large part spiritually and emotionally in my life.

Your grandfather used to own a hotel in Delhi.

Just before the Games when I came to Delhi to promote London, I went to see the hotel which was under construction. It is the Marina Hotel. If I get some spare time I will try and see what it looks like now. My wife is on this visit so she may get a chance to get there before me.

If you had to chose between the Moscow gold and the Los Angeles gold which one would it be?

Moscow was the most intense pressure that I have ever felt as a competitor. I tend to think Moscow defined my career more than Los Angles. But it is a nice position to be to pick between one and another.

As 2012 London Olympics chief how did you go about getting the Queen to be part of the James Bond film for the opening ceremony?

We thought that she was the most iconic figure in Britain and everybody recognized her around the world but they also knew of James Bond. Our creative team thought of the innovative idea of bringing them together in a sequence which I think was very successful. At that time I wasn’t sure if the Queen would say yes but she entered into the spirit beautifully.