Okay by Hollway
SOCOG chief defends Coles' rendezvous with Pound
Posted: Wednesday March 03, 1999 02:21 PM
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Coles says his meal with Pound was just a product of friendship. AP |
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- IOC official Phil Coles' dinner date
with the man who will decide his fate over allegations of unethical
behavior has been hard to digest Down Under.
The Australian arrived home from Lausanne on Wednesday after
defending himself in front of an IOC inquiry headed by Richard
Pound.
After denying allegations of unethical behavior in connection to
Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Coles
wined and dined with Pound at the Lausanne Palace Hotel.
Pound defended his decision to share a meal with Coles, and the
IOC marketing chief Michael Payne, telling reporters "we are
friends and colleagues [and] I see nothing improper about that."
Coles has still refused to speak publicly about the Salt Lake
City ethics inquiry allegations that he treated site visits like
vacations and accepted about US$40,000 in hospitality from
the SLOC and the bid committee.
Coles has stood down from the board of Sydney 2000 organizers
SOCOG pending the result of the IOC inquiry into the Salt Lake City
allegations.
SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway defended Coles over his
dinner with Pound and Payne but the date was attacked by Australian
media.
"There could be no more vivid illustration of what is wrong
with the Olympic movement than the scene in the Lausanne Palace
Hotel on Sunday night," wrote the Sydney Morning Herald, under a
headline "Phil is grilled just in time for dinner," in a story
published Wednesday.
The paper, an Olympic 2000 sponsor, said it believed Coles would
not be punished by the IOC.
"Senior Olympic officials have played down his freeloading and
within hours of being quizzed in Lausanne he was enjoying a meal at
a swish restaurant," the paper said.
Hollway told reporters Wednesday, "I don't find it inherently
wrong that IOC members who have known each other for a very long
time sit down and have a bite together.
"Whether I would have done it in such circumstances I'm not so
sure but I don't find it to be in any sense a deeply improper thing
to have done."
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