THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 8 : Take Two! Biondi’s First Try at TV Ad Violates IOC Rules

Right after Matt Biondi had looked into a TV camera and announced, “I’m going to Disneyland!” Richard Pound of Canada, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, who was on the deck making medal presentations, asked him what he was doing.

Being a straightforward kind of guy, Biondi replied, “I’m making a commercial!”

While Biondi went on about his business, Pound took care of the business of getting that tape destroyed. Biondi may wind up making the commercial again, somewhere outside the Olympic Indoor Swimming Pool, but there is no way that the IOC, or FINA, the international swimming federation, was going to allow the use of their venue for a commercial venture.

Ray Essick, director of U.S. Swimming, said Friday night: “There were a lot of rumors about Matt losing eligibility or losing amateur status or losing medals. None of those things were ever issues. It was a question of rights. Disney had struck a deal with NBC to make that tape for them because NBC is the only one with the right to have a camera on the deck. But the IOC had not given NBC permission to make commercials in their venue.

“There really wasn’t much of a controversy over it, because no one wanted to do anything to jeopardize Matt’s standing or his performance. No one wanted to push it too much.”

Biondi himself dismissed it with a nonchalant statement: “My agent handles these things for me and tells me that there was a problem and it was canceled. They canned the film and it’s over.”