IOC Reform Vote Off to a Fast Start

The International Olympic Committee on Saturday approved new rules on age and term limits, central components of a wide-ranging reform package aimed at restoring the IOC’s credibility and prestige after the worst corruption scandal in its history.

And, surprise--it was easy.

Reminded by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch at the outset that the world was watching, all 93 members on hand voted to give up their current appointments--which essentially guaranteed a lifetime sinecure--in exchange for eight-year terms of office.

With only eight no votes, delegates also lowered the mandatory retirement age from 80 to 70.

At day’s end, after the IOC had considered and approved 38 of 50 proposed structural reforms, rejecting none, John J. MacAloon, a University of Chicago professor and Olympian historian, observed: “This is very significant. Nothing like this has happened, I can speak with some authority, in the 100-year history of the Olympic movement.

“Is it going to satisfy everyone? No.

“Is there more to do? Much more.

“Was it merely window dressing? Absolutely not,” insisted MacAloon, who also served on a special commission--dubbed IOC 2000--that identified the 50 proposals. “This organization is going to change because of what went on today.”

Skeptics noted that the IOC’s commitment to meaningful reform will take time to be fully realized. The age and term limit changes, for instance, come with provisos likely to produce confusion. In the case of one member, the Netherlands’ Prince of Orange, the phase-in rules could last until the year 2047.

Members also voted for a clause that assures they don’t lose any of the rights they now hold--in essence grandfathering in a self-protection clause for the full roster of 102 delegates, 66 of them age 60 or older.

And the most contentious issue was left for today--whether to ban member visits to cities bidding for the Games. A vote to keep such visits could yet do grave damage to the IOC’s image.

For IOC delegates, these were concerns for another day. After the votes were in on Saturday morning at the Palais Beaulieu, members cheerfully sought out reporters to proclaim that the IOC was, as skiing champion and French delegate Jean-Claude Killy put it, “another house now,” one that had “regained its footing.”

It was a year ago today that the first disclosures of wrongdoing in Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics blossomed into scandal.

On Dec. 12, 1998, longtime Swiss member Marc Hodler, speaking to a few journalists at IOC headquarters a few miles away, announced that reports of excesses in the system by which the IOC decided where to hold its Games weren’t limited to Salt Lake.

The problems, he said, had been going on for years, and all around the world.

Over the next few months, it was disclosed that Salt Lake bidders had spent more than $1 million in cash, gifts, scholarships and other inducements to help win the 2002 Winter Games.

Four IOC members resigned. Six more were expelled.

Reports of irregularities also surfaced in connection with Atlanta’s winning 1996 Summer Games bid and from Nagano, Sydney, Toronto and other locales.

Several inquiries were launched; a variety of reports were issued. A U.S. Justice Department investigation into the possibility of criminal wrongdoing in Salt Lake remains ongoing. Samaranch is due to testify Wednesday before a Congressional committee.

In opening Saturday’s session, Samaranch told delegates: “This crisis has affected many of you. You have faced harsh criticism, very often unfair. You have gone through undeserved suffering and pain. Myself, as president, I have suffered too. We have all suffered.

“But, believe me, there is no alternative. We had to work very hard to solve this crisis. And now we are very close to succeeding.”

He added: “These are reasonable reforms. The people of the world are watching. We can’t disappoint them.”

Samaranch lobbied the members hard Friday night, intent on traveling to Washington with reforms in hand. Killy said, “Everyone understood the need for change.”

The vote for term limits, for instance, was widely expected to produce sharp debate. Instead, not one objection sounded from the floor before the 93-0 vote.

The age limit produced but a few comments before passing, 81-8. Four members abstained.

It’s the way the age and term limit rules really work, however, that gives pause.

The new retirement age will apply to new members only; current members can still serve until age 80. After eight years in office, meantime, members won’t be automatically ousted; they’re free to stand for reelection by their peers.

In theory, the Prince of Orange, now 32, could keep running for reelection until he turns 80, in 2047.

In other action, members approved the introduction of a 12-year term limit for IOC presidents--one eight-year term and the possibility of a second term of four years.

Members also voted to enlarge the ruling Executive Board from 11 to 15. The move is intended to make the board more representative of the full membership. It’s likely, however, to prove pivotal in upcoming IOC politics, with members jockeying for position in the race to succeed Samaranch, who is due to step down in July 2001.

Even as the IOC voted Saturday to limit membership at a maximum of 115, it also invited 15 athletes to join.

Ten of the 15 are expected to take their seats today, among them American volleyball star Bob Ctvrtlik, 36.

Ctvrtlik, who won gold in Seoul in 1988 and bronze in Barcelona in 1992, would become the third U.S. member of the IOC, joining Anita DeFrantz and Jim Easton.

All three live in the greater Los Angeles area.

“As far as this organization is concerned, this scandal is the best thing that ever happened,” because it provided the impetus for change, Ctvrtlik said.

He called Saturday’s votes “the first steps in shifting the focus back to where we want it to be--toward the good about the Olympic Games, toward the athletes, toward the sacrifice, the achievement, the winning. The bank accounts and the extravagant gifts--that isn’t where the focus should be.”