Torsten talks:
An interview with WAVA's president
(This interview first appeared in Athletics
Weekly on April 26, 2000.)
The short, balding Italian emperor was
out. An era of Machiavellian machinations and rigged
elections was over. A modest new president of the global
track authority was in. But unlike the ascension of
Senegal’s Lamine Diack in the
IAAF, the election of Sweden’s Torsten Carlius to the
presidency of the World Association of Veteran Athletes went unremarked.
The change was just as momentous, however.
Ten years after first taking office, Cesare Beccalli of
Italy was forced to step down as WAVA’s own Little
Caesar in 1997 -- ousted by term limits instead of death.
Beccalli, only the second president in WAVA history, had
overseen five world championships and a steady growth in
the veterans movement to nearly 120 affiliate nations. He
also became WAVA’s answer to Primo Nebiolo.
Infamous for backroom deals, Beccalli shared
Nebiolo’s lust for power. With a pauper’s
annual budget of under $200,000 and no palatial
headquarters, however, Beccalli could not aspire to the
wealth of his Italian contemporary -- but tales of
skimming and kickbacks are common.
Beccalli even beat back an impeachment attempt -- two
years after proof surfaced that he paid the WAVA
registration fees of one small country’s inflated
voting delegation that insured his re-election.
Enter Carlius. The Swede -- who had toiled for eight
years as WAVA secretary -- defeated masters newspaper
publisher Al Sheahen of
the USA for the presidency at the General Assembly in
Durban, South Africa. The powerful European voting bloc
insured that WAVA would again be in the hands of a
non-American.
Carlius is a curiosity. Unlike the vast majority of vets
officials, he no longer competes. Born the Ides of March
in 1939, his athletic career was short and mediocre --
long jumping 6.03 at age 17 and high jumping 1.70 at 18.
He says he’s entered only one veterans meet -- a
regional pentathlon championships in 1994.
That lack of connection has raised eyebrows.
“He is not, and never has been, a serious
competitor, ” says one WAVA executive, “and I
think that is important background for WAVA officers. You
can't quite understand the passion if you have never
seriously competed at one level or another.”
But Carlius claims credits in athletic administration --
with experience reaching back 40 years. This includes
service on the Swedish Athletic Association Council and
the European Veterans Athletic Association. Before
becoming president, he also was a member of the IAAF
Veterans Committee and honorary president of his local
athletic club -- IFK Helsingborg.
Said Rex Harvey of Ohio, a North
American delegate on the WAVA Council: “Torsten has
done much better than I thought he could.” And
German EVAA Vice President Dieter Massin
wrote me: “Torsten Carlius has done a very good job
as WAVA president, always interested to contact and to
support the affiliates, to pick up new ideas for a
successful development of the veterans' movement.”
But one source said: “He still has too much of a
Swede (German/European) outlook -- which as I see as
‘Those in charge know what is best; do what you are
told and be quiet.’ ”
Well-educated -- he speaks English and German fluently
and knows some French and Italian -- Carlius is chief
financial officer of AB H”lsingborgshem, a large housing
company, and expects to hold that job until mid-2002.
After the disaster of the 1997 World Veterans Athletic
Championships in Durban -- where First World officials
had to scramble to keep the meet from crashing -- Carlius
oversaw the most successful WVAC in history last August
at Gateshead, a sun-kissed event that drew nearly 6,000
athletes from 74 countries.
That meet also drew worldwide media attention for its
laughable (but sensational) “sex row scandal.”
(An Australian sprinter accused an American grandmother
of being a man.)
On that note, Athletics Weekly begins a chat with Torsten
Carlius.
AW: The World Veterans Athletic Championships in
Gateshead, for all its marvelous performances and nearly
70 world age-group records, gained international media
attention only after one female sprinter falsely accused
another of being a man. What is WAVA doing to increase
public awareness of veterans track on a more positive
note?
TC: We have created the office of a "commercial
manager" (Ron Bell) and hope that
he will be able to make us known. We have set up our own
Web site (www.wava.org) where we give much information
about our activities and programmes. We use the IAAF News
and the EVAA News to inform our affiliates and all those
interested in track and field but to reach all people
outside our own world would cost us much more money than
we have and the money we have must first of all be spent
on development.
AW: You once told me that WAVA was hoping to
revive its veterans publication. Do you still have hopes
for this? If so, when might we see such a magazine?
TC: We have a hope to create a WAVA magazine, but today
we have not the financial resources. We have our Web
site, but I feel that there are more people to reach
through a WAVA magazine. Future will show if we get the
resources.
AW: With more and more veterans athletes
achieving performances above 100
percent on the WAVA Age-Graded Tables, it would seem time
to revise the 1994
tables. Are plans under way to update the WAVA tables? If
so, when will the
new tables be available?
TC: The present tables were meant to be valid until 1999,
and I have asked Wilhelm K–ster and Rex Harvey to
evaluate what changes- if any - are necessary due to
raised performance levels. The issue and their
conclusions will be discussed at the WAVA Council meeting
in Brisbane end of March 2000.
AW: The IAAF has 10 so-called Development Centers
throughout the world. Have you made progress in making
these centers available to veterans, as you once
suggested?
TC: We are discussing with the IAAF Office and hope that
we could get a start of future cooperation by having the
Africa Veterans' Championships in 2000 staged at the IAAF
Development Center in Cairo. The signs are positive, but
there is no final agreement.
AW: At Gateshead, the General Assembly failed to
muster enough votes to change the organization's name to
the World Association of Masters Athletes. The WAVA
Council advocated such a change to WAMA to improve
chances of gaining corporate and other sponsorship
monies. What does WAVA now plan to do to increase its
revenue base?
TC: The WAVA Council will discuss its proposals to the
General Assembly in Brisbane in 2001 at the council
meeting in March 2000 and among these will no doubt be if
or if not the council will bring forward again the name
change. I know that many council members support the
change, but we have to study the result of the voting in
Gateshead carefully.
AW: WAVA is affiliated with the IAAF, but the
IAAF granted WAVA only $40,000 U.S. for 1999-2000, a
relative pittance compared with its own revenues. Should
WAVA seek more money from IAAF?
TC: WAVA must find ways to raise its income on its own
values and so the Commercial Manager office is created.
We are of course very grateful to IAAF for its support
which we hope will increase over the coming years, but
this can never be the main resource for us. We must find
our own ways.
AW: How many countries are now WAVA affiliates,
and how many athletes around the world compete in
veterans athletics?
TC: We have now 125 affiliates all over the world, but
there is unfortunately no reporting of how many veteran
athletes we have - just that they are many and that the
number is increasing.
AW: WAVA had a bad experience
at the World Veterans Athletic Championships in Durban,
South Africa. The meet was awarded to Durban as a means
of fostering development of veterans track in Africa.
What is being done to assure that the 2003 meet in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, succeeds where Durban didn't?
TC: We will continue to take a much stronger grip on the
organization of our championships. We started at
Gateshead by having our inspection groups there from time
to time, and these efforts will be greater both for
Brisbane and for Kuala Lumpur. It is our first duty to
see to it that our championships are organized in the
best way possible.
AW: Unlike the IAAF -- which has a sophisticated
publicity operation that includes a Web site,
publications and an office that keeps track of records
and seasonal bests -- WAVA has only a small Web site
managed by a single volunteer. When will WAVA have the
ability, like the IAAF, to keep records of seasonal best
performances in all age groups?
TC: Our resources are unfortunately too small today to
have an administration on the same level as IAAF, but it
is my and our ambition to improve and give more
information and publicity of best performances. This
might mean that we have to increase support for our Web
site, and the council will study the issue in March.
AW: Will you run for re-election to WAVA's
presidency in 2001 at Brisbane?
TC: Yes, I will run for re-election as WAVA president in
Brisbane.
AW: What goals for WAVA have you accomplished?
TC: Some goals have been accomplished, but two years are
a very short time. We have done the following:
--Better organization of our WAVA
Championships by inspection visits and close follow-up of
LOC preparations. However, much more will be done in
future championships.
--Created a Women's Committee and have
more women on our other committees but we must find more
women interested to work with us.
--Better administration of WAVA and
better information of what we are doing/WAVA
website/efforts to get sponsorship through our Commercial
Manager -- a new office.
--Closer cooperation with World Masters
Games and reached the goal that WAVA (and other ISFs) are
guaranteed their own technical delegates at future World
Masters Games from Melbourne and onwards.
--Started development programme in
Oceania (Tonga) and offered South America help to
translate training literature into Spanish.
-- Opened up contacts with the Latin
America countries within our North and Central America
& the Caribbean region.
--Increased cooperation with IAAF,
which might lead to the Africa Veterans Championships in
2000 at the IAAF Development Center in Cairo. However, I
must underline that most items above are started and we
must work hard the next years to realize ambitions
completely.
AW: What goals for WAVA do you still hope to
achieve?
TC: There are many goals to accomplish but the most
important are:
--Make WAVA as well-known as possible
all over the world.
--Increase WAVA financial income so
that we can actively promote development of veterans'
athletics all over the world. The commercial manager will
play a heavy role in these efforts.
--I want to change our WAVA committee
structure so that the committee members are elected by
the WAVA General Assembly and that regions that have no
members on committees are offered to appoint one member
each (IAAF structure).
--Continue the work to build up
cooperation between WAVA and other ISFs on one side and
World Masters Games on the other. I do actually see a
situation more like the Olympic Games with World Masters
Games Association as the international overall body for
Masters Games and the ISFs as the technical responsible
bodies for their sports. We start in Melbourne in 2002
with a WAVA technical delegate for the track & field
events (Jim Blair, our vice president for stadia).
--See to it that the WAVA Council has a
much stronger grip on the organization of all our WAVA
World Championships. We have started, but much remains to
be done.
--Build up regional cooperation in all
regions between the WAVA and the IAAF Regional
Associations -- existing for example in Europe and
Oceania -- but can become much better in all six regions.
--Assist all our WAVA regions with
various development programmes. We have initiated one
already in Oceania, but the need is very great.
AW: The biggest threat to WAVA appears to be competing
events sponsored by the Internationals Masters Games
Association. How is WAVA dealing with this?
TC: There is a possible threat that Masters Games of
various kinds could enter the market, but I think that we
have started discussions (and will) find ways together
with the World Masters Games Association to secure that
this will not happen. One way in this effort is to take
the lead in the development of Regional Masters Games -
for example in Europe where EVAA plans to invite to the
first European Masters Games in Potsdam in 2002 and to
create a European Association under WMGA.
AW: WAVA was formally launched on August 9, 1977,
in Gothenburg, Sweden, and many of its founders are still
active in the movement. What is WAVA doing to encourage
new leadership in the veterans movement? Where will the
next generation of WAVA officers come from?
TC: I am sure that there will always be competent and
good officers elected on the WAVA Council and, even if
you say that the founding leadership is still active, we
have many new officers working in the council and
committees. As I see it, the risk that we will not find
new and competent candidates/officers for the WAVA
leadership is very small -- not to say non-existent.
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