Sydney Olympics on track despite IOC scandal
Posted: Thursday December 17, 1998 12:01 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- With the International Olympic
Commitee embroiled in a corruption scandal and a world summit in
February set to discuss sports doping, Sydney 2000 organizers
denied Thursday they had been handed a poisoned chalice.
The three senior officers of the Sydney Organizing Committee for
the Olympic Games (SOCOG) said that if the twin scandals of
corruption in the host city bidding process and drugs in sport were
handled correctly, the Olympic movement could emerge stronger by
the time of the Sydney games.
"There is every intention (that the) IOC is moving swiftly in
relation to this matter, so it is not going to be a running sore,
it will not linger," said Sandy Hollway, SOCOG chief executive.
"It is highly likely that if we cast our minds forward to
February or March we will have seen an effective inquiry into the
corruption matters and we will have seen and effective and
intelligent attack on the doping issue.
"If the IOC is able to respond intelligently to them, then (the
IOC) will come out of this stronger, fast."
Dissenting sports face the possibility of being thrown out of
the Olympics.
At a summit in Lausanne in February, the IOC will seek uniform
support from international sporting federations for a series of
anti-doping measures, including a minimum two-year suspension for a
first major offense and life for a second.
IOC member Marc Hodler cast the Olympic world into turmoil with
claims that the Olympics have been systematically bought and sold
and that some IOC members accepted money or favors in return for
their votes.
The IOC has launched an investigation into the successful bid by
Salt Lake City, Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympics after organizers
disclosed they had made payments of nearly US$400,000 in
scholarship funds to 13 people, including six relatives of IOC
members.
Hodler has called the process corrupt and claims as many as 25
members might have received favors or cash for votes in four recent
elections to choose sites for the games.
SOCOG said Thursday that Sydney should not be tarnished by
Hodler's corruption allegations.
"Marc Hodler was asked to put up or shut up about Sydney and he
has shut up," said president Michael Knight. "There is no taint
on Sydney, even from Marc Hodler."
He said public support for the games had not faltered because of
the scandal, but "anything that reflects negatively on the
Olympics doesn't help Sydney.
"The sooner this is resolved and off the agenda the better.'
Knight said he was confident the IOC scandal would not deter
sponsors from the Sydney games. SOCOG is facing problems meeting its US$1.64 billion
budget. Its marketing boss, John Moore, has said SOCOG is almost
US$124 million short of its corporate-sponsorship goal of
US$542 million.
"We are very confident we will raise our money and we are
confident that this matter will be resolved quickly by the IOC,"
Knight said.
John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee and
SOCOG vice-president, said he supported a proposal to remove the
host city vote from all of the IOC's more than 100 members to
reduce the potential for corruption.
"I think there is a good chance (this will happen)," he said.
Coates said he thought it was inevitable that the voting process
to determine Olympic host cities would be streamlined, with the
final decision left to the IOC's Executive Board.
Under the current system, all 114 IOC members can travel to
prospective host cities before voting to decide who gets to host
the Summer and Winter Games.
Coates said there was now much more support for streamlining the
bidding process, including from IOC president Juan Antonio
Samaranch.
"The IOC session at Lillehammer (in 1994) talked about
rationalizing it but the IOC members at that stage weren't really
keen to do so," said Coates.
"And I don't think the IOC board and the president really
pursued it then but I think that (Samaranch) has now put his
thoughts out there through the media and there's a fair chance they
will change the process."
"I think it's inevitable."
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