Samaranch Denies IOC Sold Out : Olympics: Officials defend themselves against criticism Atlanta was chosen as host city for commercial reasons.

Olympic leaders began a damage-control operation today against charges that they had sold out to commercial interests by choosing Atlanta to host the centennial Summer Games.

With newspapers in the five losing cities--and some of the losers themselves--complaining that 1996 would be the Coca-Cola Olympics, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch swallowed his pride and said the American choice was the right one for the right reasons.

“The decision to choose Atlanta to host the centennial Games was taken based on hours of study of their proposals and documents,” he said. “I accept the decision and I am certain that they will be excellent Games.”

Of the criticism, he said: “That sells newspapers. That makes good headlines.”

At a news conference ending the IOC’s annual meeting, Samaranch appeared to go to some length to try to heal the wounds left by four years of expensive and emotional campaigning by six of the world’s biggest cities.

Reported to have lobbied for Athens, Greece, as the sentimental choice, Samaranch said twice, once in an opening statement, that he “bowed to the members’ decision” on Atlanta.

He praised all the cities, with special words for Athens, which wanted to host the ’96 Games in the land where the Olympics were born in 776 B.C. and the city where they were reincarnated in 1896.

“I would like to pay tribute to all the other cities, particularly Athens,” he said. “But as president of the IOC, I bow to the members’ decision and will do everything possible to make these Games successful.”

He said, too, that Athens “deserves something important” to mark the 100th birthday, although it was too soon to discuss details.

Samaranch also applauded Melbourne, Australia, which already has announced that it will try again after finishing fourth this time.

“Melbourne had a wonderful presentation to the IOC session, perhaps the best presentation I have ever seen,” he said.

All of the bidders, he said, would benefit from their campaigns.

“We are quite happy to have very many candidates. Even the losers are winners in some way. They are spreading the Olympic idea and they are known by millions of people around the world.”

On other subjects, Samaranch said that equestrian events for the 1992 Olympics would be held in another European city if equine flu in Spain made it unsafe to stage them in the Games’ host, Barcelona. He said a decision on whether they would be moved would be made in November by the International Equestrian Federation and that the IOC would then decide the new site, if necessary.