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MORE HODLER CORRUPTION CHARGES; BUT ARE PEOPLE SURPRISED?

          IOC member Marc Hodler continued to charge corruption
     in the Olympic bid process yesterday and said that SLOC
     Senior VP Dave Johnson has "given an IOC investigation
     commission information verifying that IOC members accepted
     payments illegal under IOC rules," according to Mike Gorrell
     of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE.  For "the past five days, nobody
     has been able to silence the 80-year-old Hodler, the IOC's
     longest-serving member."  Hodler: "I'm at the end of the
     three worst days in my long career in sports. ... Salt Lake
     was a victim of blackmail and villains ... the agents who
     put cities in awkward positions."  IOC President Juan
     Antonio Samaranch said that the Salt Lake City bid is being
     investigated, but that it could expand to other cities if
     there is evidence (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 12/15).  Samaranch:
     "If we have proof on other cases, we will open another
     inquiry as well" (Mike Dodd, USA TODAY, 12/15).
          FIVE RING CIRCUS: In the wake of Hodler's comments,
     many bid committee members commented on the process of
     trying to secure the Games.  Sydney Olympic bid officials
     said they "channeled" A$2M of "left-over" money to the
     Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) to "sway crucial wavering
     African votes to win the 2000 Games."  The AOC set up a
     trust fund to administer an African Olympic Training Center,
     a "political move openly credited with ensuring Sydney's bid
     success" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 12/15).  Former ACOG
     President Billy Payne said Atlanta did not "buy" the '96
     Games: "I never talked to those people; they never
     approached me.  It's legend in Olympic lore that there are
     some influential people.  But I couldn't name any of them
     today.  Nor did we hire anybody.  Nor did we pay any IOC
     members" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 12/15).  Paul Henderson,
     Chair of Toronto's bid for the '96 Games, said he was
     approached by a "number" of agents from outside the IOC,
     offering their services to secure votes: "Did they come
     after us?  Yeah.  There were five or six that I knew of who
     said they could influence (IOC) votes" (TORONTO SUN, 12/15). 
     One senior member of the Melbourne '96 bid committee said
     that "about three" of the 70 IOC members who visited
     Melbourne "dropped strong hints that they would like to be
     given a car."  One Melbourne member recalled, "It was said
     in jest.  But you could tell they were hoping you'd think it
     was a request" (Melbourne AUSTRALIAN, 12/15).
          MEDIA REAX: An ATLANTA CONSTITUTION editorial states it
     "would be a surprise if a thorough investigation turned up
     nothing else unethical.  Why?  The process for selecting
     cities to host the Games invites corruption" (ATLANTA
     CONSTITUTION, 12/15).  The Montreal GAZETTE states that
     "much of the entire process by which cities compete for the
     members' favour reeks of bribery."  It criticizes the IOC's
     in-house probe into the allegations, calling it "no way to
     restore public credibility.  [The IOC] should name an
     outsider to head this exercise" (GAZETTE, 12/15).  In
     Toronto, Stephen Brunt writes that Samaranch "has been
     brilliant at stick-handling image problems in the past, at
     filling the IOC's coffers while maintaining the veneer of
     the Church of Sport.  But he accomplished that with power,
     with authority, by keeping a lid on things.  The lid is now
     open, and it's Pandora's box" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 12/15).

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