COMMENTARY : A Breath of Scandal Can Blow Out Helmick

If the Olympic movement were the real world, or, say, the U.S. Congress, Robert Helmick might be able to escape from his current entanglements with nothing more consequential than wrist burns.

But Olympism, as idealists like to call the movement, has more in common with mythology than reality, and Helmick, a Des Moines, Iowa, lawyer who has served as the U.S. Olympic Committee president and an International Olympic Committee member for the past six years, is in all likelihood nearing the end of his career as an effective international sports leader.

Helmick, 54, announced Saturday at a meeting with the USOC’s Athletes’ Advisory Council he will not be a candidate in the fall of 1992 for a another four-year term as president, but that was a foregone conclusion. A more pertinent issue is whether he will survive this term.

Indeed, he seemed poised to tell the AAC he would take a leave of absence for the period of time that it takes the USOC’s special counsel, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Arthur Burns, to complete his review of some of Helmick’s questionable business relationships.

With a push from the USOC’s executive committee, that was the course taken by vice president George Steinbrenner last year, when he was embroiled in controversy connected with his suspension from major league baseball.

Although his difficulties were unrelated to his performance as a USOC officer, USOC staff members and volunteers complained they could not concentrate on tasks at hand until Steinbrenner’s situation was resolved.

By all accounts, the furor over Helmick has created far more distractions for the USOC. But he has not stepped aside. To the contrary, whether it was because to do so might be interpreted as an admission of guilt or because of encouragement from the athletes, Helmick left Saturday’s AAC meeting with his jaw set more firmly than ever.

He again maintained there was no conflict of interest represented by his private arrangements as a sports law attorney with clients who either had or were seeking business relationships with the USOC or the IOC, dealings that came to light in USA Today.

After meeting with Helmick 10 days ago, the USOC’s executive committee released a statement saying it did not appear as if he had tried to influence the USOC on behalf of his clients. At the same time, the executive committee commissioned Burns to investigate. The USOC is reserving further judgment until it reviews his findings.

But even if Burns finds Helmick guilty of nothing more than poor judgment, the damage to his credibility has been done.

Helmick, a former water polo player who became prominent in sports administration while advancing toward the presidency of the international aquatics federation (FINA), was elected USOC president in 1985 after John B. Kelly died only a few weeks into his first term. Helmick was elected to a full four-year term in 1989 and, after engineering a change in the bylaws to allow the president to succeed himself, probably would have been re-elected next year.

At the same time, he has used his influence as USOC president to become an officer in the Pan American Sports Organization and a member of the IOC’s inner circle, the executive board. But perhaps because he is perceived as overly ambitious, he has never been particularly popular.

Effective, yes.

In his six years as president, he has been the driving force in transforming the USOC from an organization that often seemed to function primarily as a travel agency for athletes, coaches and officials into a business with a $250-million-per-quadrennium budget.

He has achieved that by forming a political coalition with USOC members of the same mind while shutting out others. Today, the others are exacting their revenge, obscuring the issues by turning him into the issue.

As for his former allies, they are doing what Helmick would have done in a similar situation: damage control. At a black-tie dinner sponsored by the USOC on Oct. 1 in Washington, Helmick was supposed to introduce the guest of honor, George Bush. But it has been suggested to Helmick by some USOC executive committee members that Olympism might be better served if he were less visible.

For better or worse, that might also be a description of his future with the Olympic movement.