Bribery Scandal Not Slowing

The Justice Department is weighing whether it needs to investigate allegations of bribery in the awarding of the 2002 Olympics to Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City officials acknowledged giving a paid internship to the son of an International Olympic Committee member.

Last week, the Salt Lake committee of civic leaders that successfully bid for the 2002 Winter Games said it had spent $400,000 on scholarships for 13 student-athletes--six of them relatives of IOC members.

Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini--a former member of the bid committee--said the son of IOC member David Sikhulumi Sibandze of Swaziland was given a city government internship at $6 an hour while he attended the University of Utah in 1993-94.

In Washington, Attorney General Janet Reno said on Thursday the Justice Department’s criminal division is considering whether it should open a formal probe into the allegations. The controversy has turned into the biggest corruption scandal in the 104-year history of the IOC.

The fallout could mean major changes in the way cities are picked to stage the games, according to Jean-Claude Killy, the gold-medal skier and successful Olympic organizer who is now an IOC member.

Killy, the driving force behind the 1994 Albertville Winter Games and attending the launch of Paris’ bid for the 2008 Summer Games, said he was taken aback by the extent of Hodler’s accusations and thinks a new voting system will be in place by 2001, when the 2008 venue will be awarded.

Today, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee plans to meet and its ethics panel will begin investigating the scholarships as well as gifts, possible cash payoffs and free medical treatment--all apparent IOC violations.

Jurisprudence

The president of Italy’s soccer federation is the country’s latest top sports official implicated in a growing drug scandal. Prosecutors are trying to learn if Luciano Nizzola played a role in hiding positive drug tests to help clubs or players.

Antonio Matarrese, Nizzola’s predecessor and now a vice president of Europe’s governing soccer body, was informed Wednesday he is being investigated in connection with the same accusations.

The Rome inquiry is one of several into the use of performance-enhancing substances in Italian soccer. The fallout has included the resignation of Italian Olympic Committee President Mario Pescante and the closing of the country’s drug-testing laboratory.

Former Northwestern football player Michael Senters pleaded not guilty and denied lying to federal grand juries investigating sports betting at the school.

Senters was one of four former players charged earlier this month in an indictment that accused them of lying about their gambling.

Senters is accused of lying about a $500 bet he is said to have placed on a 1994 game between Northwestern and Ohio State, a game in which he played.

Miscellany

Shalonda Enis made a layup and jumper during a 10-0 fourth-quarter run that carried the Seattle Reign to a 67-64 victory over the New England Blizzard in an American Basketball League game before 6,094 in Hartford, Conn.

Prairie View A&M; reportedly is so upset over a fine that it might withdraw from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Houston Chronicle, citing an unidentified source, reported that Prairie View officials were “so disgusted” over the $31,000 fine, the school would rather leave the SWAC than fight the sanctions in court.

The school was fined after failing to heed a SWAC-imposed two-game suspension of the marching bands from Prairie View and Southern. The conference punished the schools because their marching bands fought on the field at Lamar on Sept. 19.

Names in the News

Brian Quinn will remain as coach of the San Jose Clash after signing a one-year contract with the Major League Soccer club. . . . Oregon wide receiver Tony Hartley was suspended indefinitely by Coach Mike Bellotti and won’t make the trip to Hawaii for the Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day. Hartley was suspended for violating unspecified team rules. . . . Shawn Stuart and Chris Sailer of UCLA are among 35 football players who have earned postgraduate scholarship awards of $5,000 each from the NCAA. . . . Sam Solomon, known for training some of boxing’s top heavyweights, is dead at 83. He trained Muhammad Ali, Leon Spinks and Sonny Liston before they became world champions. . . . Dave Williams, who coached Houston to 16 NCAA golf championships and sent many of his players on to the pro tour, died at 80.