Frankie in hot water

Former world sprint champion Frankie Fredericks was charged yesterday by French authorities for passive corruption and money laundering relating to a graft probe into the awarding of last year’s Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, a judicial source said.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Fredericks, who denies any “involvement in untoward conduct”, is being investigated over a $299 300 (about R4.2 million) payment he received from Papa Massata Diack, son of ex-International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack, on October 2, 2009 – the day Rio won the bid.

Fredericks, a four-time Olympic silver medallist, appeared before a Paris judge on Thursday.

French investigators are looking into the possibility that bribes were paid over the awarding of both the 2016 Olympics to Rio and the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The investigation centres to a large extent around the activities of Papa Massata Diack who, along with Lamine Diack, also faces charges in France over millions of dollars paid to cover up doping failures by Russian athletes.

Fredericks insists that the payments, first revealed by France’s Le Monde newspaper in March, were received for promotional services provided between 2007 and 2011 under a contract signed on March 11, 2007, and had nothing to do with the Olympics.

Following the corruption allegations, the 50-year-old Namibian stepped down as head of the IOC committee evaluating bids to host the 2024 Olympics.

The IAAF provisionally suspended Fredericks from its ruling council on July 17 as it launched a probe into the graft allegations against him. In March, Fredericks had also stepped down from an IAAF task force working on getting doping-tainted Russia back into global sport.

Fredericks, known as “Fast Frank’ released a statement at the time, saying: “I categorically deny any direct or indirect involvement in any untoward conduct and confirm that I have never breached any law, regulation or rule of ethics.”