Barcelona Will Provide Answers for Samaranch

The Barcelona Games should mark a triumphant homecoming for Juan Antonio Samaranch, the pinnacle of his career as president of the International Olympic Committee.

Repeat, should.

The Games come at a time of controversy and uncertainty for the most powerful man in world sport.

Attacked by critics who charge he has betrayed the Olympic ideals, hounded by allegations of corruption in the IOC and berated for his ties to the former Franco regime, Samaranch has much at stake in ensuring successful Games in his native Barcelona.

Not only is Samaranch’s personal prestige on the line; so is the future course of the Olympic movement.

With his term as IOC president expiring next year, the sports world is wondering: Will Samaranch run again or will these be his last Olympics?

Since his election in 1980, the Olympic movement has been radically transformed. When Samaranch took over, the Olympics were virtually bankrupt and marred by political boycotts.

Today, the coffers are bulging as are the numbers of participating countries and athletes. Total revenue for the current four-year cycle is nearly $2 billion. More than 10,000 athletes from 172 countries will compete in Barcelona.

Yet, critics charge the growth of the Games has come at the expense of the Olympics’ traditional ideals.

Commercialization, they allege, has corrupted the Olympics and the people who run them. The millions of dollars spent by cities bidding to host the Games, the gifts, the first-class travel and the regal treatment reserved for Samaranch and IOC members -- all have come in for questioning.

The harshest indictment came in “The Lords of The Rings,” a book written by two British journalists which attacks the entire Olympic establishment and Samaranch in particular.

The book, released last month in Europe and adapted into a two-part TV documentary in Britain, accuses Samaranch of being a loyal “fascist” under Gen. Francisco Franco and of running the IOC like the late dictator.

The IOC has filed libel proceedings against the book in Swiss courts. Samaranch calls the book “malicious” and “full of mistakes, full of lies.”

He said he has nothing to hide about his past in Spain, where many of Franco’s former followers hold important positions today.

“The people of Spain know very well that I was collaborating with the Franco regime, like many others,” Samaranch said in a recent interview. “We are very proud of what we did. We went from the Franco regime to a full democracy in peace.”

Samaranch has suggested the authors were manipulated by people who want to oust him as IOC president. He appeared to point the finger toward British sports circles, including Princess Anne, an IOC member and president of the British Olympic Associaton. She has been critical of the way the organization is run and has opposed some of Samaranch’s appointments.

Britain, which has lost much of its influence in the administration of world sport, has been the source of much of the hostility toward Samaranch. Sections of the British press often raise the spectre of a Latin conspiracy -- Samaranch running the Olympics, Italy’s Primo Nebiolo leading track and field and Brazil’s Joao Havelange heading world soccer.

“Britain believes people of Latin origin have no right to these positions,” Samaranch was quoted as saying in a Spanish newspaper. “This is a north-south war, brought about by the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons who cannot stomach a Spaniard as head of the IOC.”

Samaranch believes it is no coincidence the book has been released a year before the next election for IOC president, suspecting the campaign for his succession has already begun. “After what is going on these last weeks, I think so,” he said.

Samaranch, who is 71, had been leaning toward stepping down next year. But he said the book may give him a reason to change his mind and seek a third term.

“To get the position I have now is very difficult, but to withdraw at the right moment is much more difficult,” he said. “Maybe the right moment would be after the Barcelona Games, if they are successful. But now, after this book, I am thinking seriously to run again. I have to prove that I have the support of the Olympic movement.”

There have been reports in Britain that, unlike his re-election by affirmation in 1989, Samaranch will be opposed should he decide to run again. “If there is another candidate, I am used to fighting, no?” he said.

It’s not clear who would run against Samaranch, although some British reports suggest it could be Princess Anne.

Should Samaranch step aside, among the leading candidates to succeed him are Richard Pound, a Canadian who runs the IOC’s marketing affairs; Kevan Gosper, an IOC vice president from Australia; and Keba Mbaye of Senegal, a vice president and former judge on the World Court.

Samaranch will announce his decision sometime after the Barcelona Games. Ultimately, the choice could depend on his health.

“I hope I have the support (of the members),” he said. “The health, I don’t know. Today, yes. Tomorrow, I don’t know.”

Samaranch keeps in shape by skipping rope and exercising with wrist and ankle weights. He said he was aware of speculation that he has symptoms of Parkinson’s Syndrome -- his hands and head tend to shake.

But he held up a hand to show that it was steady. “The only thing I have,” he said, “is being 71 years old.”

“The Lords of The Rings” is not the only negative publicity the IOC has received.

Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, reported last year that some IOC members were bribed to vote for Atlanta as host of the 1996 Games. No evidence was provided.

Samaranch denied the charges, saying, “I trust the members 100 percent.”

But new allegations surfaced in late June. With campaigning for the 2000 Games in full swing, a German television news program said it had obtained documents indicating that Berlin bidding officials believed all but seven of the 94 IOC members could be bribed.

“Most representatives from Eastern Europe, many from South America and some from Africa and Asia” have the tendency to be bought, the documents reportedly said. Berlin officials denied making any such assessment.

Looking back, Samaranch rates the success of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 as his greatest satisfaction.

“The best moment was the closing ceremonies when I realized I was closing the best Games ever in the Olympic movement,” he said. “Before, the IOC had been criticized for choosing a country which was like at war with North Korea. Many people said the Games will never go on. But thanks to these Games, the country changed dramatically economically and politically.”

Samaranch’s biggest disappointment was the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

“We had worked very hard to convince the Soviet Union it was in their best interest to take part,” he recalled. “(Yuri) Andropov understood, but he passed away during the Sarajevo Games in 1984. It was a big surprise when (Constantin) Chernenko, who was an old man from the old guard, took power. Chernenko was fully dominated by (Andrei) Gromyko and Gromyko hated the United States and they decided to boycott the Games. With Andropov or Gorbachev things would have been different.”

The Barcelona Games will be boycott-free. But will they live up to Samaranch’s hopes?

“I can say now that we have a wonderful theater,” he said. “The rehearsal of the company is fine. On July 25 when the curtain is raised, we will see. But we won’t be sure of the success until the last day.”