Quebec feeling cheated from 2002 Games
Posted: Wednesday December 16, 1998 11:36 AM
TORONTO, Canada (AP) -- Members of the delegation for Quebec City's 2002
Winter Olympics bid feel betrayed in light of the scandal
surrounding the successful bid by Salt Lake City.
"You have to be disappointed when you realize that not all the
players were playing by the same rules," Quebec City 2002 bid
chief Rene Paquet said. "It's really unfortunate."
Quebec City lost out to its American rival for the 2002 Games.
The vote wasn't close, but it since has been revealed that Salt
Lake City used nefarious means of winning the favor of some
International Olympic Committee members.
A $500,000 "humanitarian aid" program was set up by the
Salt Lake City bid committee, part of which paid for the education
of six relatives of IOC members.
One has been identified as Sonia Essomba, daughter of Rene
Essomba, an IOC member from Cameroon who died August 31.
Swiss IOC executive committee member Marc Hodler called the fund
nothing more than a bribe, and Salt Lake City organizers have since
apologized for the "embarrassment" caused by the scandal.
What is particularly frustrating to Paquet and his colleagues is
that the Quebec City group long held suspicions that some rival
bids were using underhanded methods to sway IOC voters.
"We had doubts that all the candidate cities were playing
absolutely by the rules," said Paquet, a Quebec City lawyer and
businessman. "But having doubts is one thing and being able to
produce some specific facts is another."
Paquet said his group heard rumors that some of the rival bid
groups resorted to devious means of winning votes, rumors that have
been confirmed at the IOC meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland, last
weekend.
He said the IOC has to get a better handle on how much each city
spends in bidding for Games and where the money goes. As for Salt
Lake City's humanitarian aid package, Paquet said his group could
not have set up such a fund even if it wanted to because every
dollar spent by Quebec City 2002 had to be accounted for.
"No bid city had more of an open budget than we did," he said.
"Because much of our budget came in the form of government and
corporate grants, everybody knew where the money came from and
where it went."
As with the case with Toronto 1996 bid chief Paul Henderson,
Paquet was approached by an "agent" offering to help sway certain
IOC members to vote Quebec City's way - for a price - during the
bidding process for the Games.
"My answer was quick and precise," Paquet said. "We did not
play that game."
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