Now his reign as lord of the Olympic rings has been blemished by a widening scandal that arises, in part, from his own excesses. Indeed, critics say Samaranch’s imperious self-indulgence and his failure to effectively police his own organization have contributed to a culture of corruption in the IOC. Two of its 115 members resigned last week in the face of allegations that they accepted inducements in return for the selection of Salt Lake City as the site of the next Winter Olympics, in 2002. More heads were expected to roll after an IOC meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, over the weekend on the findings of an in-house investigation. Potentially more damaging probes were still underway, including one by the FBI. New information came out about unorthodox payments in Sydney, Australia, where the Summer Games are scheduled to be held next year. With corporate sponsors suddenly as wary as deer in hunting season, the games in Sydney and Salt Lake City may have to be scaled back. ““The subculture of corruption didn’t start in Salt Lake City,’’ Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt told NEWSWEEK. ““The Olympic movement is in grave danger.''
““They better be dealing seriously with this,’’ says an executive at one corporation that has pumped millions of dollars into the Olympics. ““The big sponsors are making it damn clear to the IOC that there can’t be any slack-off.’’ Samaranch agreed that ““excluding a few black sheep won’t be enough,’’ and he insisted that only he could clear away the spreading stench of corruption. ““In this moment,’’ he told the Associated Press, ““I have to be at the head of the IOC more than ever.’’ But Dick Schultz, executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, warned that Samaranch, whose term has two more years to run, might face a ““palace revolt.''
It was Samaranch who built the Olympics into a multi-billion-dollar empire. He paved the way to fat television contracts and lucrative corporate tie-ins, and he freed athletes from the hypocrisy of sham amateurism. ““President Samaranch took us from bankruptcy, from boycott, to the golden age,’’ says Alex Gilady, an Israeli member of the IOC and an executive at NBC, which has agreed to pay about $3.5 billion for the right to broadcast the five Summer and Winter Games between 2000 and 2008. His supporters insist that Samaranch really doesn’t like all the pomp that goes with his job. ““He abhors limousines,’’ says Kevan Gosper, an Australian member of the IOC Executive Board. His need for workspace during the Olympics explains the hotel suites, his supporters say. Under its contract with the IOC, Salt Lake City has budgeted $42,200 for Samaranch’s suite at the games–on top of the $150 a night paid by the IOC.
Samaranch’s hotel bill in Nagano, Japan, during last year’s Winter Games ran to about $80,000. Nagano spent heavily to lure the Olympics to its mediocre snow, but most of the records were ordered destroyed by an official of the city’s bidding committee, who said he wanted to spare the IOC any ““unpleasantness.’’ The Japanese also gave Samaranch a handmade samurai sword worth $18,000. The IOC prohibits gifts worth more than $150, but not for Samaranch, who has no vote on the committee. Canadian lawyer Richard Pound, the IOC vice president and head of its internal investigation, said any official gift to Samaranch ““goes back to the IOC, either on display or in storage.’’ But the Kyodo News Agency reported that the sword had not been located at IOC headquarters.
Samaranch can appear tolerant of ethical lapses by his subordinates. When a Libyan member of the IOC, Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi, resigned last week after it was revealed that his son had been given college scholarships in Utah, Samaranch announced: ““He’s a good man.’’ The IOC, in the end, is a tight little club, and many of its members are above reproach. At its elite core are a few European royals (Britain’s Princess Anne, Monaco’s Prince Albert). Around them orbit executives, lawyers, doctors and sports organizers, some of them former athletes. Many members use the IOC connection to enhance their images and make lucrative contacts–which is not necessarily corrupt.
Finland’s Pirjo Haggman resigned last week because her then husband, a forestry specialist, got jobs in Utah and Canada through her connections. She denied any wrongdoing. South Korea’s Kim Un Yong, a powerful IOC member, has a daughter who’s a concert pianist. Orchestras in actual or would-be Olympic cities–Melbourne, Australia; Atlanta, and Salt Lake–have signed her up as a guest artist. Her father sees nothing wrong in it, and the former music director of the Utah Symphony says she was hired for her talent, not her father’s connections.
Sometimes money paid to influence an IOC decision can also have a benign purpose. Last week Tom Coates, the head of the Sydney organizing committee, admitted he had offered $35,000 apiece to IOC members from Kenya and Uganda, to be paid in seven annual installments to their countries’ sports organizations. The next day Sydney defeated Beijing for the games–by a margin of two votes. At the time Sydney already had a publicly known program to promote sports in nine African countries. The Australians said they made it clear that aid would be given to Kenya and Uganda, too, but only if Sydney won the election. Gosper told NEWSWEEK the payments ““would continue if Sydney won, and would not continue if Sydney didn’t win.''
Perhaps inevitably, some IOC members wallow in the luxuries they are offered. When Sydney was courting the IOC, 72 members visited there and were treated like rock stars at the best hotels and restaurants. A local columnist observed that ““delegates may not know much English, but they all comprehend the word “lobster’.’’ Few members have taken more advantage of their opportunities than Jean-Claude Ganga, 64, of Congo-Brazzaville, one of Samaranch’s key supporters (he obliged his patron by leading the campaign to raise the IOC retirement age from 75 to 80). Salt Lake City was very, very good to Ganga. He twice got medical treatment there, and his mother had three free operations. In 1995, three months after Salt Lake City won the Winter Games, Ganga was steered into a local real-estate deal that earned him a quick profit of $60,000. When his good fortune became public knowledge, he claimed, in effect, that everybody does it. ““There’s corruption with the Asians, the Europeans and the Americans,’’ he told Radio France. On the eve of the Lausanne meeting, he told CNN: ““I will never, never resign, because I don’t think I’m guilty.''
So what can be done now? Firing a few IOC members, or even a slew of them, might not be enough to convince corporate sponsors and the public that the Olympics are clean again. ““The IOC’s sponsorships have become radioactive,’’ David D’Alessandro, president of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance, told The New York Times. He said he had begun to wonder whether Samaranch could stay in office and thought the IOC leader could fix the problem only if ““he takes no prisoners and recognizes that all he has built is in jeopardy.''
John Lucas, a retired sports historian at Penn State University, says Samaranch should not resign. ““He has done so much good, even though he may have looked the other way and even winked at some forms of corruption,’’ says Lucas. ““I don’t think Samaranch should step down any more than I believe William Jefferson Clinton should step down.’’ Lucas says the job of inspecting potential host cities should be assigned to a team of ““incorruptibles’’–10 for the Winter Games and 10 for the Summer–with the full IOC involved only in the final vote. Samaranch is thinking along similar lines. He has canceled IOC member visits to six cities that were scheduled to begin on Feb. 1. Instead, he wants visits to be made by selection committees, which would give the full membership a choice of only two cities. Obviously there might also be new rules on accepting gifts and favors, along with tighter, more credible enforcement. And if Samaranch wants to convince the world that the IOC has changed for the better, his own high-and-mighty style will have to become a bit more plebeian.
PHOTO (COLOR): ‘Excellency’: Samaranch in Atlanta in 1996. Critics say he’s a glutton for glory. Defenders say he saved the Olympic Games.
CAUGHT IN THE GLARE OF A GROWING GLOBAL PROBE An internal report prepared by the International Olympic Committee identified 13 members whose actions warranted investigation, press reports and committee sources say. Another IOC member has also been linked to possible misconduct in Sydney. Not all have responded publicly to the charges, which vary in seriousness.
Salt Lake City: Investigators are looking into whether IOC members accepted bribes in return for the games.
Agustin C. Arroyo, Ecuador: His stepdaughter allegedly got tuition money from the SLOC. She also worked for the city bid committee. He denies the allegations.
Sergio Santander Fantini, Chile: Ex-SLOC chief said he donated $10,000 to Fantini’s 1993 Santiago mayoral campaign. Fantini denies the claim.
Lamine Keita, Mali: IOC officials are investigating allegations that a family member received tuition assistance from Salt Lake City organizers.
Pirjo Haggman, Finland: She resigned following allegations that her ex-husband got jobs in Utah and Toronto. She denies any wrongdoing.
Anthonius Geesink, Neth.: SLOC officials say Geesink got a $5,000 donation to buy a vehicle for a foundation he runs. “It has nothing to do with me,” he says.
Louis Guirandou-N’Diaye, Cote d’Ivoire: IOC member since 1969. It is unknown what misconduct Olympic officials are investigating.
Jean-Claude Ganga, Rep. of the Congo: Allegedly received more than $100,000 from various SLOG sources. He denies all charges against him.
Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi, Libya: SLOC officials allegedly paid his son’s tuition at several Utah colleges, as well as a $700 stipend. Attarabulsi resigned from the IOC.
David Sikhulumi Sibandze, Swaziland: His son allegedly got a job with the Salt Lake City development office while a graduate student in Utah.
Vitaly Smirnov, Russia: IOC officials asked him to explain his request for medical treatment for a former Soviet hockey star. He denies wrongdoing.
Zein El Adbin Ahmed Abdel Gadir, Sudan: Began with the IOC in 1983. His alleged offense is unknown.
Kim Un Yong, South Korea. He denies wrongdoing in helping a Russian woman obtain enrollment in a U.S. university.
Charles Mukora, Kenya: Australian officials say he may have been offered $35,000 for Kenyan sports programs on the eve of the IOC vote on the 2000 games in Sydney.
Francis Were Nyangweso, Uganda: Implicated with Kenya’s Mukora on charges of accepting financial inducements before the vote on the Sydney games.
Nagano: Questions have been raised about the destruction of financial documents.
Sydney: City records show cash payments to programs run by IOC members.
