An extensive examination of Salt Lake City's bid for
the 2002 Winter Games is conducted by Thomas, Johnson &
Longman of the N.Y. TIMES in a front-page special report.
Salt Lake City's long effort to "join the Olympic fraternity
-- sometimes brazen, sometimes comic, and all the while
relying on inside information provided by other Olympic
cities -- comes to detailed life in hundreds of pages of
internal bid documents obtained" by the N.Y. TIMES and in
interviews with former SLOC President Tom Welch and SLOC VP
Dave Johnson. In the piece, Johnson said he told IOC VP
Anita DeFrantz "everything" about scholarship and cash
payments. DeFrantz has "refuted Mr. Johnson's claims."
Johnson said that during the bid process, DeFrantz "would
frequently ask him which way [IOC] members were leaning and
what it had taken to gain their allegiance." Johnson: "From
1992 to 1995, every time we had an I.O.C. member visit Salt
Lake, she either flew to Salt Lake or during their visit
would talk to them on the telephone." If an IOC member had
sought favors, Johnson said DeFrantz's response was,
"'That's not good,' or something like that. She didn't say,
'Don't do it.'" The TIMES writes, "Mr. Johnson's charge is
explosive. If Ms. DeFrantz knew of the misconduct in Salt
Lake City and did nothing to report or correct it, her
reputation as one of the most powerful and upright figures
in international sport could be damaged." DeFrantz
"emphatically refuted" Johnson's claims. DeFrantz, on some
of the actions taken by the SLOC for IOC members: "I was
never asked if it was O.K., or if they should do anything,
or if it was a way to win the games" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/11).
