UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT?

December 29, 1998
		Amidst charges of bribery, both the International and U.S. Olympic Committees and the U.S. Department of Justice are investigating Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Following a background report, Jim Lehrer and guests discuss the allegations and the investigations.

Feb. 23, 1998: As the Nagano Olympics ended, 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.     U.S. Olympic Committee	JIM LEHRER: Tom Bearden begins our coverage of the Olympics story. TOM BEARDEN: Salt Lake City realized the fruits of years of lobbying in June of 1995, when the International Olympic Committee announced the host city for the 2002 Winter Games.
	Salt Lake City 2002.
	JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH, President, International Olympic Committee: (1995) The International Olympic Committee has decided to award the organization of the 19th Olympic Winter Games in 2002 to the city of Salt Lake City. TOM BEARDEN: Salt Lake had been a first ballot winner -- beating out Quebec and cities in Sweden and Switzerland. Jubilant officials and residents celebrated at a huge outdoor rally. But in the last several weeks charges have been leveled that Salt Lake City officials bribed Olympic officials to get the games. Those officials have admitted giving four hundred thousand dollars in college scholarships to 13 beneficiaries, including six relatives of IOC members. Other members received gifts and free medical services. Four separate investigations are now underway. The IOC has ordered an inquiry, so has the Ethics Committee of the Salt Lake Organizing Group. Last week the U.S. Justice Department began its own review on whether federal tax and corruption laws were violated. And today, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell launched an investigation on behalf of the United States Olympic Committee, He promised a "thorough and prompt" investigation. GEORGE MITCHELL: I entered this process with a completely open mind both as to the practices and standards which have been utilized in the past and those which ought to be utilized and part of our analysis and basis upon which our recommendations will be made will necessarily involve looking at what has happened in the past -- what have been -- if any -- the standards, written or otherwise -- what have been the actual practices; how have they either complied with or been in violation of those guidelines. The very purpose of the commission is to try to get the facts and to put them in some context for the U.S. Olympic Committee to try to help make certain that if, in fact, there were practices in the past which were inappropriate, we do everything we can to prevent them from occurring in the future. TOM BEARDEN: The various Olympic committees looking into the matter are scheduled to complete their investigations within the next couple of months -- well before the start of the 2002 winter games.
	IOC members.
	JIM LEHRER: Now to two journalists who have been covering the Olympic story: Howard Berkes of National Public Radio, and Christine Brennan, who's also written two books on the Olympics and figure skating. Okay, Christine, first of all, let's try to understand some of the specific charges. College scholarships, these were given to people who were on the International Olympic Committee. Now how many people were on the committee, who actually make these decisions? CHRISTINE BRENNAN, Sports Writer: There are 115 members, and they're from around the world, some of them are kings and queens and princes, literally Princess Anne, Prince Albert of Monaco. There are - I would call it actually the sports world's royal family. This is about as upper crust as it gets. And they make these decisions every few years to award the Olympic games to a city, winter or summer games. And these are the people who make these decisions. JIM LEHRER: And these decisions are made way in advance, are they not? CHRISTINE BRENNAN: That's correct - seven/eight years in advance. For example, in 1988, Atlanta received the nod from the U.S. Olympic Committee, beating out Minneapolis. Obviously, Atlanta then had to go at it for a couple of more years against international competitors and then in 1990, 1990/1991, they received the nod from the IOC in a secret ballot to get the Olympics for 1996.
	The allegations .
	JIM LEHRER: Yes. Now, Howard, to you on the specifics here in Salt Lake City, they are accused of - the people in Salt Lake City are accused of, for instance, providing college scholarships to some of these - to relatives of members of the IOC. What's the nature of those scholarships? HOWARD BERKES, National Public Radio: Well, we don't have very many details about that because the Salt Lake Olympic organizing committee still has withheld much of the information about this program, but what we do know is that over a period of seven years Salt Lake Olympic organizers paid out thousands of dollars in college scholarships to six relatives of IOC members; they put them through school -- through American University in the case of the daughter of one IOC member, through several colleges in Utah. The payments also included living expenses and books, and other things that were necessary for them to be in school. JIM LEHRER: Now, there was also a very interesting story about medical expenses that were provided for members of the committee. Tell us that story. HOWARD BERKES: Well, at least three people associated with the International Olympic Committee, either IOC members or their relatives, received as much as $30,000 in free medical care that was arranged by organizers of the Salt Lake Olympics. There were - we know specifically of three instances - again, we don't have the details on that - but in one case somebody received some cosmetic surgery; in another case some kind of operation on the knee or the thigh. And Olympic organizers went to local hospitals and doctors and said, for the sake of the Olympic bid we want you to do this for free. JIM LEHRER: And you're talking about local - you mean in Salt Lake City? HOWARD BERKES: Here in Salt Lake City. JIM LEHRER: And they, in fact, did it? HOWARD BERKES: And they did it. JIM LEHRER: Yes. HOWARD BERKES: And they did it. JIM LEHRER: Now, Christine, you've been covering these Olympic stories for years. Is what Salt Lake City did unique?
	1984: A watershed year.
	CHRISTINE BRENNAN: I don't think so, and I think that's one of the key issues here as we look at this whole thing. I've covered the games since 1984, and really 1984 is the - is the watershed year, when the Los Angeles Olympics succeeded as they did, and you had this incredible big birthday party, celebration in the United States. All of a sudden, after the disasters with Munich, with the 11 Israeli athletes killed, and then with Montreal and a deficit I think they're still paying for now in Montreal, all of a sudden you have cities falling over themselves wanting the Olympic games. And what happened and what I've found over the years covering this is that these kinds of things, perhaps not to this degree, these kinds of things have been going on for quite a while. For example, a man in Manchester who ran the bid for Manchester, England, a bid that did not succeed in the year 2000, told me and told others, he said, he even knew the shoe size of the second daughter of one particular IOC member. What does that mean? That means they were giving out gifts constantly. You had situations where ICO members were able to pilot yachts - 38-foot yachts in Sidney Harbor. Obviously, this was well within the rules, so to speak, of the IOC -- $200 gift limit - but how do you rank price lists in the $200 gift limit area? And I think the reality is that this has been going on for a long time, Jim. I think - I don't think that Salt Lake City - while it is important that we look at Salt Lake City - they're going to say to a lot of people - is hey, we had to do this, and the IOC members who were taking the gifts obviously didn't blow the whistle; they took them. JIM LEHRER: Yes. Howard, the attitude in Salt Lake City - I was reading about this today and some people were saying that Salt Lake City is actually a victim, rather than a perpetrator of this system, is that - how do you - is that how the people of Salt Lake City see it? HOWARD BERKES: Well, actually, people in Salt Lake City don't quite see it that way. Some people, of course, here see that, as Christine described, that Salt Lake Olympic organizers had to do what other bid cities have done to win the games. Others, though, see it as Salt Lake City taking the low road, and violating not only the regulations of the International Olympic Committee that were in effect at the time but possibly the law in order to secure the games. What's important, though, at this moment is that the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee both have essentially said this is not Salt Lake City's fault; the fault does lie within the members of the International Olympic Committee who took it up on themselves to extract these kinds of gifts, to encourage them over the years, to seek them out. And it's quite clear that the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee puts the blame there and that the action that they will take will be focused on the members of the International Olympic Committee and establishing rules that will prevent this kind of thing in the future from that standpoint. There doesn't seem to be anyone interested in punishing Salt Lake City. JIM LEHRER: Yes. Christine, it would seem then that it would be very easy to solve this problem if the people who are taking the - whether their bribes or favors - whatever they are - just refuse to take them and discourage them, the thing is over. CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Absolutely. And obviously the IOC has to police itself, or at least that's what you would hope, but they haven't. And, in fact, they've been having their hands out saying give me more, give me more - golf at Augusta National from the Atlanta people - again a legal gift in that sense. I think what's going to have to happen - JIM LEHRER: What were you talking about there, the Augusta - the people who on the IOC who were allowed to play golf at the - CHRISTINE BRENNAN: At Augusta National - five members of the IOC went and played golf at Augusta National, the site of the masters, one of the hallowed grounds of golf, as part of Atlanta's bid at the time Atlanta was hoping that golf would be part of the Olympics, and one of the reasons they allowed this to happen is while they had to see the site, after all, make sure all 18 greens were up to Olympic standards. Of course, golf was not in the Olympics. What kind of perk was that? This again was legal. Atlanta was doing nothing wrong, but I think the point that needs to be made here is that Salt Lake City obviously, if alleged - what is alleged is true - Salt Lake City may have gone farther, but when you look at some of the things the IOC was expecting, was wanting, I would point my finger right at the IOC members, as a journalist looking at this, and ask them the question, why didn't you say, hey, we're getting this, we shouldn't be getting this, and my sense of it is that they cannot police themselves, but what we will see down the road is a commission perhaps ten/fifteen members, international - an international body of people outside of the Olympic world watching this very closely. JIM LEHRER: What have the IOC members said, themselves, about all of this, other than to appoint the Mitchell Commission and other than that - and other things like that - what have they said and done?
	IOC denies the accusations.
	HOWARD BERKES: Well, the individual members of the IOC, some of whom have been accused, deny the accusations. They're not saying much at all. The International Olympic Committee, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee, particularly Mark Hodler, who's the second most senior member of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the IOC, and Dick Pound, a vice president who's considered the heir apparent to Juan Antonio Samaranch, they all have spoken out. They generally have certainly condemned this kind of activity. They have launched their own investigation. What they're interested in doing it appears is taking away from the general membership of the IOC those 115 members, the ability to choose Olympic cities. They have talked about a process by which that would be - the Olympic cities would be chosen by the 11-member executive board. Juan Antonio Samaranch has tried this before and the IOC has voted it down. This may be the opportunity, though, with all the attention that is now focused on this scandal for the IOC to finally do this. And it may be a way certainly of controlling corruption; it may also be a way of consolidating power within the International Olympic Committee. It's a wieldy body with 115 people from all over the world who come from all kinds of cultures and who have different kinds of expectations, and in some cultures, the kind of favors that - exchange of favors that took place here is probably not inappropriate at all. JIM LEHRER: And not considered bribes. HOWARD BERKES: They're not considered bribery. Part of the way that business is done on an international level. I should point out that the Justice Department is investigating. JIM LEHRER: Sure. HOWARD BERKES: And there are federal laws that do forbid this kind of activity; whether this particular activity fits under those laws, that's what the Justice Department is figuring out. But there are federal laws that prohibit this kind of thing. JIM LEHRER: Christine, what about the idea of removing the decision-making on where these games are from that big - the big committee - and that might solve the problem?
	Addressing the problem.
	CHRISTINE BRENNAN: I think that's a great idea, and obviously it would also mean that the incredible dollar amounts - the estimated $30 million by the five or six cities going for the 2000 Olympics. JIM LEHRER: $30 million? CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Just to try to win the bid that city, Australia, eventually won -- $30 million - think where that money could go if they weren't busy wining and dining the ICO members and of course also building stadiums and beginning the process, but I think that's a great idea. The fact is that do all of these IOC members all have to go to all these cities and get the expensive hotel suites and go and play golf or do whatever they do, do they all have to do this? It seems again like it was Christmas morning every day of the year for the International Olympic Committee and from the standpoint of this opens the door and has us all look at it a little bit closer, journalists, as well as obviously some of the investigating bodies, that's probably a good thing. JIM LEHRER: And as they say about this time of the year, Christmas may now be over. CHRISTINE BRENNAN: I think it is officially over for the International Olympic Committee. JIM LEHRER: Christine, Howard, thank you both very much. HOWARD BERKES: Thank you, Jim.