Games Need Still More Reform

The International Olympic Committee has moved with surprising and welcome speed to purge itself of members who accepted lavish gifts or outright bribes to support Salt Lake City’s successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games. IOC Vice President Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles says those members--fewer than a dozen in the 115-member body--are being asked to resign. But the IOC must be prepared to do much more than that to reestablish the credibility of the Olympic movement.

Any member who accepted bribes and refuses to quit should be expelled. And the committee should reorganize itself and the manner in which Olympic sites are selected.

The scandal, which erupted in December, already has brought about the resignation of the two top officials of the Salt Lake City organizing committee and the suspension of two others. Continuing investigations are being conducted by the Salt Lake City committee, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Justice Department. The results will determine whether criminal charges are justified.

Some Salt Lake City officials clearly bought into an IOC tradition that key members had to be showered with gifts by any city that hoped to win the Games. But the Salt Lake City effort, although apparently limited to a few IOC members, went far beyond gift-giving. One IOC member reportedly received a direct payment of $50,000.

Corporate sponsors are now worried about their Olympic investments, and there is some nervous though limited talk of relocating or canceling the Games. But it’s too late to move the Games, and they should not be canceled. So long as the investigations are thorough and result in swift corrective action, Salt Lake City should be able to present an outstanding event.

But the future of the Olympic movement is at stake as well. Once the investigations have been completed, Juan Antonio Samaranch should step down as IOC president. From now on the IOC should impose term limits on members, especially the president, to make it impossible for a few individuals to run the committee as an elite fiefdom. Site selection, now handled by the entire committee, should be vested in a small group subject to strict rules of ethics.

The Olympics may have become too massive and overly commercial, but that is no excuse for tolerating greed and corruption within its leadership.