Former sprinter Frankie Fredericks quit Tuesday as head of the IOC commission monitoring candidates for the 2024 Olympics amid a probe into money he accepted from a sports marketing chief accused of corruption.
Fredericks, 49, strongly denied any wrongdoing in accepting nearly $300,000 (283,000 euros, Sh30 million) around the day that Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympics.
But said he had “personally decided that it is in the best interests of a good functioning of the International Olympic Committee candidature process that I step aside as chairperson of the 2024 Evaluation Commission, because it is essential that the important work my colleagues are doing is seen as being carried out in a truthful and fair manner.”
The Namibian athletics great went on: “I do not wish to become a distraction from this great contest.”
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