IOC and ACOG officials met yesterday on problems with
transportation and technology that have affected the Games'
opening days, with one IOC official saying, "It was the toughest
meeting ACOG has had to sit through." Another high-ranking IOC
official: "As bad a first few days as I've seen -- make that
disorganized" (DETROIT NEWS, 7/22). Even the ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION notes organizers are "coming up short of a perfect
10." IBM spokesperson Jeff Cross said they are working "around
the clock" to fix glitches with the scoring system. IBM Chair
Louis Gerstner was called to a meeting of top ACOG officials,
including ACOG COO A.D. Frazier. NBC VP Alex Gilady, an IOC
member: "Until today, ACOG did not admit there was a problem.
Now they realize they have a big problem." ACOG's Bob Brennan
said he believed many of the technology problems were "rapidly
being resolved" (Unger & Emerson, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 7/22).
IOC GETS TESTY: IOC Sports Dir Gilbert Felli says the IOC
"is like this with every organizing committee," but another IOC
member says the frustration is that ACOG was told their transport
plans would not work. That IOC member: "They have done so much
to make the Games great, but this could destroy the image of the
Games" (Philip Hersh, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/22). In S.F., Scott
Ostler writes, "Some of the problems are more than minor" (S.F.
CHRONICLE, 7/22).
BIG PROBLEMS FOR BIG BLUE: The N.Y. TIMES notes most of the
technological problems "were attributed to computer systems
developed by IBM." IBM's Cross: "This is the largest sporting
event in the world -- equivalent to a NASA space shot or two
Super Bowls a day for 17 days. There are some legitimate start-
up problems." Analysts cited by the TIMES said the problems
"could be a blow to IBM's plan to position itself as a major
integrator of technology systems." The failure of the results
system for officials and media "also led to a failure of the
Olympic Internet site and a domino-effect failure" of other Web
pages dependent on ACOG (Jerry Schwartz, N.Y. TIMES, 7/22).
