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Samaranch stays away Olympic scandal to get U.S. Congressional scrutiny
Posted: Tuesday April 13, 1999 05:35 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Olympic scandal moves to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, with its leading player staying away and theories swirling about a U.S. conspiracy to take over international sports. Almost five months after the bribery scheme in Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games was exposed, the Senate Commerce Committee holds hearings into what went wrong. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch spurned an invitation to testify, and the relatively short list of witnesses -- including former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell -- is unlikely to present much new information. The hearing comes 19 years to the day after perhaps the best-known American government foray into the Olympic arena. On April 14, 1980, the U.S. Olympic Committee gave in to White House pressure and agreed to boycott the Moscow Summer Games to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four investigations of the Salt Lake scandal, including one headed by Mitchell, have been completed, with 10 IOC members resigning or expelled, Salt Lake's Olympic leaders kicked out and programs started for what would be revolutionary change. Both the Justice Department and the Utah attorney general continue to investigate whether the million-dollar program of cash, gifts and services to get IOC votes violated any laws. But the hearing, run by Commerce Committee chairman Sen. John McCain, still could have a major impact on the future of the Olympics, especially their billion-dollar finances. Another member of the Commerce Committee, Republican Ted Stevens, has drafted a bill to strip the IOC's tax-exempt status and limit deductions sponsors can take for Olympic fees, a move the sponsors say would drive them away. It also would give the USOC control over U.S. television rights fees for the games, still the IOC's single biggest income source. What happens Wednesday could determine whether Stevens introduces his legislation. "I'm looking forward to hearing what the senators wish to examine," USOC president Bill Hybl said. Others see a deeper agenda lurking around the Dirksen Senate Office Building -- an American plan to control the Olympics. German press reports said Tuesday that a USOC strategy paper laid out "a scenario of how the USA could take over the IOC." Quoting an unidentified senior IOC member, the reports said the hearings were part of a Hybl-designed plan to "flex financial and political muscle to seize effective control" of the scandal-weakened international panel. Hybl and other USOC officials said there was no truth to the report. "There is no such document," the USOC president said. Mike Moran, the committee's chief spokesman, called the timing of the report "most curious." Hybl, who appointed the Mitchell investigation, has been picked for a key part of the IOC's efforts to rebound from the scandal -- a seat on a prestigious commission to restructure the committee from top to bottom. That commission, IOC 2000, will be chaired by Samaranch and include former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Los Angeles Olympic organizer Peter Ueberroth and IOC vice president Anita DeFrantz.
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