IOC Warns of Additional Expulsions

With 20% of its members implicated in the Salt Lake City scandal, the International Olympic Committee promised Wednesday to consider expelling more of them to restore its damaged credibility and assuage big-money sponsors.

“We will act decisively,” said Anita DeFrantz, an IOC vice president from Los Angeles.

IOC leaders read the 300-page report issued Tuesday by a Salt Lake ethics panel, a document detailing more than $1 million in cash payments and other favors lavished on IOC members during the city’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

The report linked an additional 10 IOC members to the scandal, bringing to 24--a fifth of the total membership--the number of Olympic delegates accused of accepting excessive benefits.

The IOC said the ethics report was being forwarded to its own six-man panel investigating the Salt Lake case. Last month, the IOC panel identified 14 members involved in alleged excesses stemming from Salt Lake’s bid.

Nine of those members have either resigned or been expelled by the IOC executive board. Three others--including powerful executive board member Kim Un-Yong of South Korea--remain under investigation, one received a warning and one has died.

Further expulsions are now likely before the special IOC assembly in Lausanne, March 17-18.

In other developments:

* Australia’s Phil Coles, one of the 10 new IOC members implicated in the Salt Lake case, stepped down from the Sydney Olympic organizing committee board, pending an IOC inquiry. The Salt Lake report said Coles and Guatemala’s Willi Kaltschmitt made four visits together, with their families, to the United States--including a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami, hosted by Salt Lake City bid director Tom Welch, at a cost of $19,991.

* Barbados IOC member Austin Sealy, who was implicated in the Salt Lake report, denied any wrongdoing. Bid records showed $3,000 a month passed through a company affiliated with a consultant to Sealy.

* The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Atlanta Olympic chief Billy Payne suggested a college tennis scholarship, medical treatment and free plane tickets as gifts for IOC members in a memo written before the city won the 1996 Games, but the idea was immediately dismissed.

Tennis

Andre Agassi, leading by a set and seemingly on his way to an easy victory, was defaulted from the Sybase Open in San Jose for a series of “audible obscenities.”

Agassi, a four-time champion who is seeded second in the tournament this year, won the first set, 6-0, over qualifier Cecil Mamiit. In a second-set tiebreaker, trailing, 4-0, Agassi apparently began cursing at a linesman.

The linesman went to chair umpire Steve Ulrich to report Agassi’s comment, and Agassi was warned. As the linesman returned to his chair, Agassi apparently made another comment--for which he was penalized a point.

Agassi apparently made yet another comment as the linesman returned to his chair and ATP Tour supervisor Tom Barnes was called to the court. He conferred with Ulrich, who defaulted Agassi and awarded the second-round match to Mamiit.

Francisco Clavet of Spain upset fourth-seeded Greg Rusedski of Britain, 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, to advance to the third round of the $1-million Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates. . . . Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, playing in a tournament for the first time since August because of a leg injury, lost to Jens Knippschild of Germany, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia.

Football

Michael McCaskey has been replaced as president of the Chicago Bears after the team’s second consecutive 4-12 season and a bungled coaching announcement. Virginia McCaskey, McCaskey’s mother and the daughter of team founder George Halas, announced that Ted Phillips, the team’s vice president of operations, is the new president. Michael McCaskey, 55, will become chairman of the board, and his father, current chairman Ed McCaskey, will become chairman emeritus.

The Carolina Panthers cleared about $3.1 million in salary cap room by cutting two original franchise members, linebacker Lamar Lathon and nose tackle Mike Fox. Coach George Seifert said the Panthers also extended kicker John Kasay’s contract through the 2003 season and agreed to terms on a three-year contract with offensive guard Anthony Redmon. . . . The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Mark Bruener, one of the NFL’s best blocking tight ends, to a $10-million, four-year contract.

Texas Coach Mack Brown will earn $1 million a year under a contract extension approved by university officials that seeks to keep him with the Longhorns through the 2008 season.

Baseball

Relief pitcher Turk Wendell, who wears No. 99, avoided arbitration when he agreed with the New York Mets on a one-year contract worth $1,200,000.99. . . . First baseman Rafael Palmeiro of the Texas Rangers underwent surgery to repair a slight cartilage tear in his right knee. Palmeiro is believed to have injured himself while running stairs as part of a workout last week. . . . The Angels will play a split-squad exhibition against their top minor league prospects March 31 at 7 p.m. at the Diamond in Lake Elsinore.

Miscellany

Mike Tyson probably will have to return to Indiana for a hearing to determine whether he has violated his probation there on a 1992 rape conviction and may have to serve more prison time, regardless of whether he appeals his one-year sentence in Montgomery County, Md., Tyson’s probation officer said Wednesday.

Brad Van Liew of Los Angeles has changed course in the Around Alone race, a sailing race around the world, to aid British competitor Josh Hall, whose boat was dismasted in heavy seas.

Evan Thatcher had 20 kills and Adam Naeve had 19 kills and seven blocks as UCLA’s fourth-ranked men’s volleyball team swept No. 9 USC, 15-5, 15-10, 15-10 at USC’s North Gym. . . . USC golfer Jennifer Rosales won the individual title in the TRW Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.