USOC: Scandal threatens IOC president
Posted: Friday January 22, 1999 04:08 PM
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Schultz: "If there is unanimity to vote those people out, then he is going to stay as president. If they don't, then not only Samaranch but the whole IOC is in serious trouble." AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- A "palace revolt" is brewing in the IOC and
president Juan Antonio Samaranch will survive only if the committee
takes quick, united action to oust members in the Salt Lake bribery
scandal, a top U.S. Olympic Committee official said Friday.
USOC executive director Dick Schultz said his "gut feeling"
was that Samaranch's 18-year reign at the top of the Olympics was
threatened by "some people who aren't being as supportive as they
could be at this point in time. I think that's unfair."
"I sense a bit of a palace revolt," he said.
Schultz, who as the day-to-day leader of the IOC's most
important national subsidiary is generally considered an ally of
Samaranch, would not say who might be involved in a festering coup.
Although there has been an increasingly loud call for Samaranch
to step aside and take responsibility for the biggest scandal in
Olympics history, none of the critics so far has come from inside
the power base of the IOC, its member sports organizations or its
influential corporate sponsors.
But Schultz, about to leave for an IOC board meeting in
Lausanne, Switzerland, that is expected to recommend expulsions of
up to 11 members in the Salt Lake case, said the fate of the
international committee and its president would be decided within
the next two months.
He pointed to the special assembly March 17-18 at which the full
113-member IOC will vote on sanctions against individual members
and consider what are expected to be radical reforms in how Olympic
host cities are picked.
"If there is unanimity to vote those people out, then he is
going to stay as president," Schultz said. "If they don't, then
not only Samaranch but the whole IOC is in serious trouble."
Schultz said Samaranch should stay in charge and was confident
of the IOC president's ability to direct the Olympics through the
bribery crisis.
"There is no doubt who is running the show," he said. "No
question who's in charge."
John Krimsky, the USOC's marketing director, whose job of
negotiating sponsorships has been complicated by the Salt Lake
scandal, said he has seen no meaningful threats to the IOC
president.
"The (Olympic) movement is solidly behind Samaranch because of
his ability displayed over 20 years," Krimsky said. "I'd be very
surprised to see change at the top before the end of his term."
Samaranch, a 78-year-old Spaniard, was elected president in
1980. His fourth and final term is to end in 2001, and he has said
repeatedly in recent weeks he has no plans to leave earlier.
Krimsky addressed sports marketing executives at the
International Sports Summit and outlined a long-range plan to
return luster to the Olympic rings by focusing on athletes.
"We have been bruised," he said. In a keynote speech, Krimsky
said he was "depressed and revolted" by the scandal but noted
with hope that recent surveys showed the public separated the
actions of Olympic leaders from Olympic competitors.
"The story is the athlete," he said. "We've just got to tell
that story to a greater extent. This is a wakeup call for that."
But Krimsky said it would take awhile for the Olympics to fully
revive. He said he hoped the 2004 Games in Athens would see a
"rebirth of the world's appreciation of Olympic competition."
In the meantime, Krimsky said, the IOC should follow the USOC's
lead and focus on the athletes. He suggested, at the very least, it
allow athletes to replace committee officials at the head of the
procession of national teams when they march into the Sydney
Olympics in 2000.
Krimsky also reiterated that he was certain Salt Lake would
raise enough money from sponsors and ticket sales to meet its $1.5
billion budget.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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