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Scandalous anniversary A year later, IOC seeks to close crisis for good
Posted: Sunday December 05, 1999 10:32 AM
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- It all started with one word. Marc Hodler, a senior execuive board member of the International Olympic Committee, was the first official to use "bribe" to describe the methods used by Salt Lake City to win the vote for the 2002 Winter Games. It was a year ago that Hodler ignited the biggest scandal in Olympic history. Two weeks earlier, a Salt Lake television station obtained a leaked document disclosing that the city's Olympic bid team had set up a scholarship fund for the relatives of IOC members. The tory remained mainly a local controversy until Hodler -- the IOC official with oversight over the Salt Lake Games -- raised the stakes by declaring that the fund amounted to bribes. But Hodler only had started. Two days later, on Dec. 12, 1998, he unleashed a series of corruption allegations which shook the IOC, accelerated the biggest crisis in its 105-year history and set the stage for a massive shake-up. Fittingly, the scandal comes full circle exactly a year later when the IOC votes Dec. 11-12 on a package of sweeping reforms it hopes will close the crisis for good. "In every crisis, you can find a positive side," IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch told The Associated Press. "We are using this positive side to make some important changes that would have been impossible without this crisis. If the reforms are adopted, maybe we can say the problem is over." What was to be a fairly routine IOC board meeting last December turned into one of the most tumultuous moments in Olympic politics. In the lobby of the IOC's headquarters, Hodler was encircled by reporters and let loose with his allegations. At one point, the 80-year-old Swiss lawyer took over a podium reserved for a sponsorship news conference and delivered an impromptu briefing, while Samaranch and other officials watched in stunned silence. Among Hodler's allegations: Hodler brought the issue of Olympic corruption to global attention and became known as the whistle-blower who pushed the IOC to reform. Yet, Hodler's principal allegations -- that agents buy and sell votes for big money -- were never confirmed, or even seriously addressed. "We were very surprised that he was saying all these things to the press," said IOC vice president Dick Pound, who led an internal inquiry into the Salt Lake scandal. "We invited him to come speak to the commission. We ended up being more surprised when we asked him for details, and he said he had no details, it was all hearsay." In fact, the IOC already had announced an investigation into the Salt Lake scholarship fund before Hodler spoke out. But no one could have predicted the events which followed: While the scandal initially centered on Salt Lake bid officials, it quickly turned to the IOC. Critics accused the organization of fostering a corrupt bidding process and doing nothing to stop the abuses. Feeling under siege, the IOC kicked out members accused of wrongdoing. It set up an ethics commission to enforce a new code of conduct. It opened its financial books and made its sessions open to the media. And, finally, it embarked on a process to reform its structure and rules. "We have demonstrated beyond any question that we are bound and determined to reform the organization," Pound said. "We have accomplished things that might have taken years to accomplish otherwise." Samaranch especially was criticized, facing incessant calls for his resignation. But the 79-year-old Spaniard refused to quit, and IOC members rallied around him, giving him an overwhelming vote of confidence (86-2) in March. Samaranch appointed a task force -- including outsiders such as former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali -- to draw up a series of reforms. Samaranch will submit the package of 50 proposals to the full IOC for approval next weekend. The measures include: appointment of 15 active athletes to the IOC; creation of a nomination and screening process for IOC membership; lowering of the age limit from 80 to 70; introduction of a renewable, eight-year term of office for members; a term limit for the IOC president; and a procedure requiring prospective bid cities to meet certain minimum standards. The most contentious issue is whether to prohibit members from visiting bid cities. "The crisis that we have experienced this year has been far more serious than we could have imagined," Samaranch says in a letter to IOC members obtained by the AP. "We must do all we can to end this as soon as possible... "The whole world is watching us, and expecting resolute action from us ... While we are the masters of our own organization, we cannot ignore worldwide public opinion."
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