This Friday in Budapest, Hungary, the IOC will choose the
location of the 2002 Winter Olympics out of from Ostersund,
Sweden; Sion, Switzerland; Quebec City, Canada; and Salt Lake
City, which is "favored." Longman notes that Salt Lakes $798M
bid is "technically superior" to the other three, but the vote
can be "highly political" and the favorite is not guaranteed
(N.Y. TIMES, 6/12). Tom Welch, President of the Salt Lake City
Bid Committee, says that the main difference between now and four
years ago, when Salt Lake lost out to Nagano by four votes, was
the "quality of relationships" between the committee and IOC and
int'l sports officials. Some 55 of the 96 IOC members visited
Salt Lake between February and May. Salt Lake officials expect
50,000 residents to gather Friday for the live announcement (John
Keahy, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 6/10). Welch also told USA TODAY that
the Utah delegation will not make an extravagant presentation.
Welch: "They (opponents) are shooting at us being 'very
American.'... So we're going to be low-key, both in our
presentation and our approach" (Mike Dodd, USA TODAY, 6/12).
George Gross of the TORONTO SUN notes that Salt Lake's largest
obstacle to overcome may be the fact that some IOC officials have
shown "displeasure" with the preparation efforts in Atlanta
(TORONTO SUN, 6/11).
NEW USOC LEADER? Former NCAA Exec Dir Dick Schultz is
expected to be named Exec Dir of the USOC, in "perhaps as soon as
two weeks," according to Saturday's N.Y. TIMES. The USOC has an
executive committee meeting scheduled for June 23 in Boston at
which time they are expected to choose Schultz over Mike Jacki,
former head of the U.S. Skiing and Gymnastics Federations (Jere
Longman, N.Y. TIMES, 6/11).
IOC RULE CHANGE: Then IOC is "expected to approve" a
resolution to change the mandatory retirement age which could
enable IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to stay in office
"into the next century" (AP/CALGARY HERALD, 6/12).
