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Tough sell Samaranch trying to persuade Congress that IOC is reformed
Posted: Monday December 13, 1999 11:04 PM
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Juan Antonio Samaranch succeeded in pushing reforms through his own assembly. Now he has to sell them to a tougher audience: Congress. A day after winning approval of an extensive package of reforms designed to repair his organization's scandal-tainted image, the IOC president flew to Washington on Monday for the biggest political test of his career. Samaranch is to testify Wednesday before a House panel considering punitive legislation against the IOC. His task is to convince lawmakers the IOC has fixed itself by enacting substantial -- not cosmetic -- reforms. "We must make sure that these reforms do indeed have the teeth behind them to bring about real and lasting change (and) to ensure they're worth more than just the paper they're written on," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who will chair the hearing. The reforms were prompted by the Salt Lake City bid scandal and other corruption allegations that have battered the IOC's reputation and credibility. In the past year, the IOC has ousted 10 members implicated in the Salt Lake affair, set up an ethics commission, published its financial accounts and opened its sessions to the media. But passage of the entire 50 proposed reforms was crucial for Samaranch before his Washington trip. Not only did the 100 delegates approve the changes, they did so by overwhelming majorities. Key reforms included a ban on member visits to bid cities, the addition of 15 active athletes to the IOC, and new rules on age limits and terms of office - all designed to make the 105-year-old organization younger and more accountable. "We did what we promised," Samaranch said. Samaranch, who has been in office since 1980, will become the first IOC president to testify before Congress. He declined requests earlier this year to appear at other hearings on the Olympic scandal. But now he has concrete results to show Congress, which has threatened to cut off the flow of television and sponsorship revenues to the IOC if it fails to enact significant reforms. "The endorsement of the package as a whole is Samaranch's best ally as he goes to Washington," IOC vice president Kevan Gosper said. Added executive board member Jacques Rogge: "Samaranch goes to Washington with a very strong message: that we have delivered what the world has asked from us. It's a good position to start with when you go to the USA." But Olympic officials still expect the 79-year-old Spaniard will face a grilling at the hearing. Lawmakers could ask Samaranch about his political role during the Franco regime and the $12,000 trip his wife and friend made in 1990 at the expense of Atlanta's Olympic bid team. "I hope Congress can look at these reforms with an outside point of view and not a Washington point of view," said professor John MacAloon, an Olympic historian who served on the panel that drafted the changes. Congress has no official authority over the IOC. But it can enact legislation to strip the organization's tax exempt status in the United States. Samaranch will have some important allies with him for the hearing, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Sen. Howard Baker. Kissinger was the pre-eminent personality on the IOC 2000 panel that drafted the reforms, while Baker serves on the new ethics commission. Skeptics, and some IOC members themselves, view the reforms as a public relations exercise, driven mainly by a need to appease American politicians, sponsors and media. One of the IOC's royal members, Britain's Princess Anne, complained that the ban on visits was "deemed necessary to put on a public performance." But MacAloon said the crisis showed the IOC had to become accountable to the outside world. "The IOC has found that it can't be a kind of club that keeps its own counsel," he said.
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