THE BOTTOM LINE

Backers of the thwarted effort to bring the 1998 Winter Olympics to the Reno-Lake Tahoe area have filed a protest over the selection process used by the U.S. Olympic Committee, calling it seriously flawed. In a letter to committee President Robert Helmick, they criticized the seven-member inspection team that visited each of the four U.S. cities vying for the bid, saying it misled them as to which criteria were most important. The Olympic Committee selected Salt Lake City to present this country’s bid in 1991.