obituary: kim mcdonald
South Africa’s queen of the roads Elana Meyer is among those mourning the loss of one of track and field’s most influential figures. Agent-turned-International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) presidential adviser Kim McDonald (45) died two weeks ago while on holiday in Australia.
McDonald, a dour Yorkshireman, started off his athletics career as a journeyman middle-distance runner who plied his trade in the backwaters of the unfashionable north of England leagues. But within months of throwing away his spikes for the last time, McDonald had seized the opportunities offered by a sport emerging from its “shamateur” era. McDonald reinvented himself as a canny agent with a knack for striking the right deals while demonstrating genuine empathy for his clients’ needs. Soon the agents were queueing up at McDonald’s door knowing he held the key to their meetings’ success.
Meyer was one of the dozens of athletes represented by McDonald who, from his London base, ran offices in New York and Boston. “We are both shocked,” her husband, Michael Meyer, said. “It’s a very sad loss.”
“I think Kim had become more powerful in the last two years after taking more of a back seat with the management,” he said. “His role with the IAAF saw him have real influence on how many of the big decisions were made.”
One of the first to pay tribute to McDonald was IAAF president Lamine Diack. Though it was an association that was formally acknowledged just recently, McDonald had worked closely with the Senegalese since his succession to the IAAF presidency following the death of Primo Nebiolo. “We had been friends for many years,” Diack said. “I greatly appreciated the seriousness, honesty and passion he demonstrated when we worked together on the development of athletics in Africa.”
McDonald has been to South Africa on numerous occasions. At the height of the season he would flit from continent to continent a different world from the one in which the young McDonald spent his formative years learning a trade that was to make him a multi-millionaire. Sadly, it’s a lifestyle that almost certainly contributed to his premature demise.
Martin Gillingham