EXTINGUISHING THE FLAME?

March 18, 1999
		While Salt Lake City fights to regain respectability following the scandal over its bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Betty Ann Bowser reports on the growth of big business around the games.

March 1, 1999: Former Senator George Mitchell discusses the report his commission issued on the scandal. Feb. 19, 1999: A look at the growth of the business side of the Olympics. Feb. 11, 1999: Two experts in the city bid process discuss changes at the IOC. Jan. 25, 1998: The International Olympic Committee expels six members. Dec. 29, 1998: Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games comes under investigation. Feb. 23, 1998: At the end of the Nagano Olympics, U.S. performances are reviewed. Feb. 17, 1998: The first ever Olympic gold medal in women's hockey goes to the U.S. are reviewed. Feb. 9, 1998: Former Olympic athletes reflect on the meaning of the games. Feb. 9, 1998: A background report on the Nagano games. July 30, 1996: How hard should you train to become an athelete at the Olympic games? July 22, 1996: The history of the Olympics. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Sports.   International Olympic Committee U.S. Olympic Committee Sydney 2000 Summer Games	SPENCER MICHELS: In an attempt to put the worst scandal in Olympic history behind them, the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, today adopted a series of reforms. JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH, President, International Olympic Committee: This session has been one of the most important in our history. The steps the membership has taken sends a very clear message to the world that we are doing what we promised to enact positive reforms within the International Olympic Committee. SPENCER MICHELS: The committee agreed that a small panel will choose the final two candidates for the 2006 winter games from the original six hopefuls. Under the plan, the full IOC membership will vote only at the end of the process, choosing from two finalists selected by a committee. Also, strict limits were put on IOC members' contact with bidders. The IOC also approved the creation of an ethics commission with, for the first time, a majority of its members from outside the committee, and the members released an audit proving that the Olympics are in good financial standing. Cash, bank deposits and television-rights trust funds totaled $237 million at the end of 1998. The meeting began yesterday with a vote of confidence for the IOC's embattled president, Juan Antonio Samaranch.
	Support for Samaranch.
	FRANCOIS CARRARD, Director General, International Olympic Committee: The result of the secret ballot, was that 86 members voted for and two against him, so it was an overwhelming vote of confidence, and I insist, again, by secret ballot. SPENCER MICHELS: The main vote of yesterday's closed session resulted in the expulsion of six IOC members for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and inducements from officials who brought the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. FRANCOIS CARRARD: Based upon the recommendation made by consensus by the ad hoc commission, all six members have been expelled. SPENCER MICHELS: One of the six spoke to reporters after the vote. AGUSTIN ARROYO, Expelled Olympic Committee Member: What I do believe is that the public, the press, they wanted to have heads knocked down. Mine happened to be in the way -- that was all. As I have said, my conscience is clear. My name is more important to me than anything. SPENCER MICHELS: As the IOC ended its assembly today, the Committee's 78-year-old leader insisted progress had been made. JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH: I have to express my gratitude to the members of the International Olympic Committee for their vote of confidence. For me, the result was a real surprise. But I think this vote of confidence is pushing me to work harder, that the International Olympic Committee will recover the prestige we had some weeks ago very, very soon. But possibly the most important thing for me in these days of hard work is that we are showing to the world that not only the International Olympic Committee is very much united, but also we have strong links with all the international organizations and national committees. That is our strength, the unity inside the Olympic movement.
	Assessing the IOC's response.
	JIM LEHRER: Elizabeth Farnsworth in San Francisco takes the story from there. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And with me are two Olympic champions and two scholars who've written on the Olympics. John Naber won four Gold Medals as a swimmer in the 1976 Montreal Games. He's president of the U.S. Olympic Alumni Association. Donna de Varona, also a swimmer, competed in two Olympics and won two Gold Medals in the 1964 Tokyo Games; she is a sports broadcaster and current head of the Women's World Cup Soccer Organizing Committee. Jeffrey Segrave, a professor at Skidmore College, has edited two books on the Olympics. And John MacAloon, a professor at the University of Chicago, is author of a biography on the founder of the modern Olympics and has served as a consultant to the International Olympic Committee. Thank you all for being with us. Donna de Varona how do you view the expulsions and the reforms we just heard about? Is the IOC on the right track? DONNA DE VARONA: Well, I think they are on the right track but I think they have much more to do. This is the time now for, yes, all the national Olympic committees and the international federations to unite and create what I'd call a constitution of sport, because the model of this antiquated International Olympic Committee is duplicated in every international federation. And if the system isn't right, we're going to see these things happen again. Samaranch is an astute politician and obviously a very strong leader, and he has taken some steps. But the pressure of our federal government, the media and sponsors have given him the tool to do what he had to do. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: I want to come back to the constitution of sport -- don't let me forget -- at the end. I want you to tell me what that is. Jeff Segrave, what do you think of the expulsion and the reforms so far? JEFFREY SEGRAVE: I feel sorry for the members that have been expelled in a certain way. It seems to me they may have been the six fish that happened to be swimming by when the net were thrown in. As far as the reforms are concerned, I certainly think the International Olympic Committee is going in the right direction. There is still a lot more work to be done. Are they going quick enough? I don't think we could expect them to go anymore quickly. And I think they are seeking to institute policies and procedures to resurrect the situation. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, John Macaloon, where do you come down on what's happened so far? JOHN MacALOON: Well, the steps were important first of all that the organization didn't collapse into chaos as it appeared it could at a moment. The expulsions were voted overwhelmingly by the membership, which does show support for the executive board. However, the big fly in that ointment is the cases of Vice President Kim Munyong and also Philip Coles, IOC members who are very powerful, who are not small fish and in the case of Vice President Kim appear to be wiggling off the hook. They have only been warned and unless further evidence comes in, Mr. Kim's case might be closed off. Many feel that this is an indication that the reform process is unwilling to go after the really strong and threatening actors in the system and has only taken down weak persons. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: John Naber, is that the way you see it, just weak persons? JOHN NABER: Well, I'm not that familiar with all the IOC members. In fact, very few athletes are actually that familiar with what goes on at the IOC level. For so many years they have been accountable to no one. And this is pointing out the fact that the Olympic Movement has grown beyond what decisions they make. There are so many industries, there so many people that are vested stake holders in the success of the Olympic Movement that this scandal, if you will, has brought attention to the fact that the Olympics no longer just belong to a small, little group of people. But, yes, and from my point of view it does appear as if the powerful people who were implicated were not as severely punished as those less powerful.
	Some corporate sponsors.
	ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: John Naber, how has this affected the athletes, the people that you see and talk with about this that are in your alumni association? JOHN NABER: Yes. There are two sets of athletes you are talking about, those that are still training that want to be Olympians - they're oblivious to all of this. From their point of view, it doesn't matter, as long as the swimming pool is the same length for all competitors. I don't care where the Olympics take place. For those of us who graduated from the Olympic Movement years ago, this is a black eye; this is something that we hold dear and precious. We love the ideals of the Olympic movement, and we want to see the Olympics stand higher than any other sporting event. We want the world to hold it in great esteem. And this whole problem is pulling us down into mere mediocrity. The Olympics ought to stand for the ideal, not just the reality. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Donna de Varona, were you aware this sort of thing happened when you were swimming? DONNA DE VARONA: Well, I think when I was swimming way back in the early modern games, black and white television with Muhammad Ali and Willa Rudolf on the track team, we had our own issues with our own National Olympic Committee because at that time it was run like a private club. History has kind of repeated itself because when I went to the Olympics, the officials went on jets. We were carted over in prop airplanes. They stayed in air-conditioned hotels. We were in three to four in a room in apartments. They ate out, we ate in the village, all kinds of things, because it was a private club with no accountability. So after the Munich Olympics many years later, because I vowed I would change things if I could, when our officials didn't respond to the needs of the athletes, some of them didn't get to the start line, et cetera, et cetera, we had the ammunition to go to our federal government and say listen, you chartered this organization as a non-profit, lets look into it. And President Ford commissioned a 24 member commission. I'm proud to say I was part of it. And we restructured our Olympic Committee. We gave athletes 20 percent vote; we had situations where federations had to be accountable to open competitions and a democratic way of operating -- open books and financial statements, due process for athletes. This thing was the constitution of sport in America and it really transformed our Olympic committee. And then the sponsors came in to support it. The IOC has been slow to get there. In 1981 in Baden Baden, they assembled their first athletes commission to the IOC. And even those athletes way back then, 18 years ago. said we want to be part, we want to have a voice; we want it more open; we want to you handle the doping situation, due process, accountability, and, of course, they have been waiting a very long time. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: John MacAloon what is at stake here? Do you think that viewers will always have this in their mind or does the research you see show that viewers can sort of separate off these business problems and the scandal when they watch the sports and watch the Olympics? JOHN MacALOON: Well, I think it depends how far the reform process goes. I certainly agree with the history as Ms. de Varona recounted it. At the same time, the USOC has yet to announce what sanctions it is going to bring down on its board of directors members who the commission cited for taking improper gifts. We need the same level of reform on all the institutions. We don't want the spectacle of certain members of the United States Olympic Committee as the ship is on the rocks running in to loot the safe as in fact has been going on. So, we must continue the process of reform at all levels. If that happens, I think the public and the players and actors will be assured. At the same time, I think the - ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Excuse me. If it doesn't happen, what happens? JOHN MacALOON: Well, I think the fate of the Olympic Movement is not really in the hands of these elites at the moment. It's in the hands of the volunteers. And the volunteers, the most important ones, are two sets of people. One is the majority of athletes, Olympic athletes, who never make a nickel beyond training expenses as a result of their efforts. And, secondly, you cannot put on Olympic Games today without 30,000 volunteers from the host city of the Winter Games and over 50,000 from the host city of the Summer Games. If those values are still echoing in the hearts of people in Sydney and in Salt Lake, those volunteers will come forward. If they come forward, then I think all of this crisis, which is a leadership crisis, can be put into proper context and the scandal, given if reforms continue, will blow over. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Jeffrey - JOHN NABER: Elizabeth, if I may - ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Sure. JOHN NABER: It is very important to point out that the Olympic Movement is a wide variety of different Olympic organizations but the words Olympics and the five rings are all across the world being painted with the same bad brush. So the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs and the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Salt Lake City Olympic organizing committee in Salt Lake are all being perceived as one big mass of cheaters and that's not exactly in the Olympic Movement's best interest. Let's distinguish where the problems are, solve those problems, but at the same point not overlook the fact that the athletes are center stage. They're the ones who deserve our attention, and they are the ones losing out now. They're the unintended benefactors of the negative publicity because no one is going to sporting events. The sponsors are holding their promotional dollars in reserve. NBC takes the Olympic rings off their logo on their news broadcasts, and this is hurting the athletes more than it's hurting anybody in Switzerland. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Naber, what, from the athlete's point of view, what needs to be done now? What should the ethics committee, for example, which is going to be appointed, do? What kind of resolutions and demands should it make? JOHN NABER: Well, I think that the athletes that I've been speaking to all agree with an attitude - in fact, Donna de Varona said it so beautifully -- an attitude of openness, let the athletes become more involved; open up the books; perhaps recycle the memberships a little bit to let new blood come in. Let people who are actively interested in what is going on, those who bring experience and knowledge, at the U.S. Olympic level, the Athletes Advisory Council, the AAC, has a rule that says you can't sit on this committee unless you were an athlete within the last ten years. Just make sure that the current issues, the current problems are being addressed by the current membership. A lifetime appointment is a dangerous precedent to set to allow people that might have been valuable in their contributions significant 20 or 30 years ago, they are still making decisions today. And that might be a problem, something to look into. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Jeffrey Segrave, tell us what you think needs to be done still, what the ethics or this reform committee that is going to look at structure should do and then also -- what is at stake here? I didn't get to you on that question and I wanted to. JEFFREY SEGRAVE: Well, I suppose what's at stake here is the credibility and the legitimacy of the entire International Olympic Committee. The IOC needs to regenerate both public confidence and corporate sponsorship and corporate faith in the entire movement. And if the reforms aren't put through well enough and far enough, the IOC could indeed lose that sort of patronage. Concerning the reforms, I think the IOC needs to look very carefully at how it is constituted of itself and it needs to look to the NOC's, the international federations, to the athletes themselves in a much more open electoral system, one in which there is broad participation in the IOC, and certainly look at something like term membership, as John Naber rightly said, parameters should be set for how long individuals serve on these committees and their reelection procedures.
	A Constitution of Sport.
	ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And, Donna de Varona tell us about that constitution of sport you want now and what kind of other reforms you think need to be implemented. DONNA DE VARONA: Well, I think there are two issues here that we haven't addressed, which have been shadowed by this ethics issue within the IOC membership, and that is the issue of coming up with procedures for testing for the use and misuse of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, which is a huge issue, getting all the international federations to come on board with the IOC and national Olympic committees on testing and then due process. And to put the doping issue in an agency outside of the International Olympic Committee, outside of the National Olympic Committees and the International Federations so that athletes feel they are getting a fair shake when they are getting tested and reviewed. Also the due process issue, when an athlete's denied the opportunity to compete, that the athletes have another place to go, other than their own organization - it's also separate. So, I think we are looking at three entities being formed: The ethics committee, the due process legal issue and the doping issue. And I think that's very important if we are really going to clean up and come up with a credible organization worldwide. And that could be included in the constitution of sport and obviously every member that represents the Olympic Movement would have to take an oath. JOHN NABER: You know, Donna is absolutely right. The ethics problem, if not addressed will bring down the Olympic Movement but by fixing the ethics problem alone, you are not necessarily saving the movement. It is the integrity of the results of the Olympic Games that are most threatened by the drug issue, and that's probably being overlooked right now because of this character scandal. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: John MacAloon, do you agree with that, that some of the really important issues have been overlooked? JOHN MacALOON: Well, I think that the two major areas of change, which must move forward -- from the external point of view, we must reintegrate organizations which became very rich, very powerful and quite autonomous -- the United States Olympic Committee, the IOC -- to integrate them through various ways back into their social and political contexts. From inside the IOC, you've had this tremendous explosion of marketing values throughout the organization -- you've had the professionalization of sport managers, fewer and fewer volunteers, more and more paid careerists in sports management -- the incorporation, as the president liked to say and said in your opening piece, unity, bringing in broadcasters and sponsors and marketers and agents and operators of every kind flowing through the halls in Luzon. Some control must be brought on this social phenomenon to give those who represent the value of sport of the athletes of Olympic history a little more voice than they have had in the last years of the Samaranch regime. Many feel that we are just waiting for a progressive generation of IOC members, which include Olympic athletes. There is no question that the President next of the United States -- of the International Olympic Committee will you be a former Olympian. And there is a generation waiting to succeed. And it falls to them to put some balance back on what has been a tremendous growth in the power and wealth of these organizations. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, thank you very much all four of you.