Executive board meets to weigh issues

GENEVA (AP) -- The IOC executive board will meet Thursday to tackle issues from trimming the Olympic program to broadcasting rights and the turmoil in the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The 15-member board will also examine alleged abuse of Iraqi athletes by Saddam Hussein's son at its meeting at the International Olympic Committee's lakeside headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The meeting can decide to cut events from some of the sports represented in the games, though it cannot eliminate a sport altogether.

The IOC Program Commission has recommended cutting race walking -- part of the track and field program -- and at least part of the wrestling, equestrian and rowing competitions.

The board already has accepted proposals from the International Equestrian Federation to reduce the cross-country program in the three-day riding event at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"We're very well aware that many sports depend for their future on the appearance at the Olympic games," said IOC President Jacques Rogge during a conference call. "This is an important factor."

"However, this should not also be a paralyzing factor because the program also has to remain attractive," particularly to television audiences.

Rogge succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001 on a platform of downsizing the games. But last November, a congress of the 126-member IOC decided to postpone for two years a decision on removing three sports -- baseball, softball and modern pentathlon.

Despite the possibility of cutting unpopular events, Rogge said, promises to broadcast low-profile sports could play in a role in the awarding of Olympic broadcasting rights.

Rather than awarding rights to the highest bidder, the IOC would hold a "beauty contest," he said.

"It might be that a company will offer a little less money but far more exposure for sport, and that company could win the competition."

Rogge said the IOC plans to begin formal talks with U.S. networks this summer for the television rights to the 2010 and 2012 games. The rights for the 2004 summer and 2006 winter events are held by NBC.

Talks on European rights to future games would likely start within months, Rogge said.

The IOC also is in negotiations with the European Union over the possible broadcast of live images from the 2004 Olympics on the Internet and cellular phones.

Competition officials from the EU executive body -- the European Commission -- strongly support using new media to broadcast sports events.

"We're having discussions on that with the commission and they will probably be finalized within a couple of weeks, I think in a very satisfactory way," said Rogge.

This week's meeting also will discuss the "unhappy situation" at the U.S. Olympic Committee, Rogge said. He did not elaborate.

The U.S. Congress has called for a major restructuring of USOC, which has weathered numerous scandals and leadership changes.

Ethics charges against Chief Executive Lloyd Ward in December led to a reprimand by USOC and denial of his US$184,000 bonus. He had been accused of trying to steer Olympic contracts to his brother's company.

USOC President Marty Mankamyer and five other USOC members resigned this year, a top sponsor threatened to pull out of a multimillion-dollar deal, and Congress has twice called on USOC officials to testify at hearings.

USOC's executive committee agreed earlier this month to create a task force to recommend ways to streamline operations.

The executive also will consider a report from the IOC Ethics Commission on an investigation of allegations that Saddam's eldest son Odai Saddam Hussein -- who heads his country's Olympic association -- tortured and jailed athletes.

In December, Indict, a London-based human rights group, lodged a complaint demanding that the IOC expel the Iraqi National Olympic Committee from its ranks for violating the Olympic code of ethics.

Rogge refused to comment directly on the ethics commission investigation but said it was a "moral obligation."

"I'm not pretending that we're more capable or will be more successful than the inspectors of the United Nations," he said, alluding to U.N. teams who are hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "But whether we'll be able to find the truth is a big question mark and in the current circumstances probably very difficult to achieve."

 

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