Sebastian Coe has vowed to guide the IAAF "back to trust" after a series of corruption and doping scandals that has seen global athletics crash into its darkest ever days.
Speaking after an IAAF Council meeting yesterday, Coe stepped down from his lucrative ambassadorial role for Nike over what some people dubbed as a conflict of interest, notably over the award of the 2021 world championships to Eugene, located in the same Oregan state as the giant US sportswear company.
"The journey back to trust is not a scientific one, there's is no certainty in this," said Coe.
"But it does have to start with making sure that we have an organisation that is fit for purpose and can deliver the services that it needs to, and can maintain and rebuild the reputation that clearly has been hit very hard in the last few weeks."
Coe's alleged conflict of interest to one side, his predecessor Lamine Diack is under French police investigation for allegedly having accepted more than one million euros in bribes to allow athletes compete despite them having tested positive for banned substances.
In the wake of those shocking revelations, the IAAF then acted on a bombshell report by an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) by banning Russia from all international competition because of what it called systematic state-sponsored doping of its athletes.
Coe, a two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist for Britain, was in no doubt that the transformation of the IAAF and athletics, the Olympic's main sport, would take some time.
"How long that will take I don't know, but it will in total outsee my mandate," the 59-year-old said.
"One of the prevailing sentiments around the council table was there was not a single person in that room who did not remotely underestimate the challenges we face in addressing the failures and rebuilding trust in our sport."
When Coe took power from the disgraced Diack in August, he beat out Sergey Bubka on a zero-tolerance stance on doping that was the backbone of rebuilding trust.
Coe has the support of the IAAF Council, the 26-strong body that governs world track and field.
Stephanie Hightower, president of the US track and field federation, said Coe had their full support, with the accent on winning back not only fans but athletes themselves.
