Samaranch Should Quit, Former USOC Chief Says

Former U.S. Olympic Committee president Robert Helmick, the only IOC member to quit in a corruption scandal, has said Juan Antonio Samaranch and other leaders should resign.

“You’d expect the president of the IOC to adhere to a higher standard,” said Helmick, who resigned as an IOC member and USOC president in 1991 amid conflict-of-interest allegations, “He should resign. The IOC’s officers should resign.”

Meanwhile, an IOC member from Finland, Pirjo Haeggman, denied any wrongdoing in connection with reports her ex-husband had worked for Salt Lake’s bid committee. She said she had no intention of resigning.

The New York Times reported Haeggman’s former husband worked briefly for the bid committee on an environmental study.

Two South American IOC members identified by Salt Lake investigators in the scandal also said they had done nothing wrong.

Ecuador’s Agustin Arroyo said from Guayaquil that his stepdaughter, Nancy, had worked briefly for the Utah state government restoring paintings but denied she had also worked for and received scholarship aid from the Salt Lake committee.

Chilean Olympic Committee President Sergio Santander denied receiving any money from Salt Lake and said he had asked SLOC’s investigators for more information.

Santander said he was “deeply upset” about reports that former SLOC leader Thomas Welch had given $10,000 to his campaign for mayor of Santiago.

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David Johnson, the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee executive vice president forced to resign last week, attacked a Salt Lake TV crew that came to his doorstep. He grabbed television reporter Remi Barron’s microphone, kicked cameraman Charlie Ehlert, took his camera and yelled, “Get off my property!”

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Because of the scandal, organizers have indefinitely postponed the unveiling of Salt Lake’s official mascot. The unveiling was to have been Feb. 8, coinciding with the three-year countdown to the 2002 Winter Games. A date for the mascot’s debut will be announced next month.

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The scandal is just an example of the way business is done in the Olympics, said Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, two of the greatest performers in Olympic history.

“I don’t think anyone believes that this is the first time this has happened,” said Lewis, who won nine gold medals. “I don’t think anyone believes that this has not gone on before.

“I don’t know of any organization that has more power or makes more money that is less regulated in the entire world than the IOC.”

Spitz, the winner of an unmatched seven swimming gold medals in 1972, said work as a consultant for Stockholm’s unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Summer Games showed him the darker side of the Olympics.

“We communicated with the 100 or so IOC delegates and there was this definite undertow in all the conversations, and that was, ‘What benefit is it going to be to my country?’ which is more or less saying, ‘What benefit is it going to be to me?’ ” he said.

Baseball

The Dodgers have traded right-handed reliever Darren Hall to the Chicago White Sox.

In exchange for Hall, 34, the Dodgers got minor league catcher Joe Sutton, 24, who hit .231 in Class-A last season.

Claude Brochu, Montreal Expos president, agreed to sell his shares of the team for $9.9 million, helping to clear the way to refinance the club and build a new downtown stadium. However, Brochu reportedly wants to stay on as president, which may meet resistance when the ownership group meets today.

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed free-agent outfielder Darren Bragg, who hit .279 last season for Boston.

Second baseman Tony Womack, who led the National League in stolen bases each of his first two full major league seasons, agreed to re-sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates, avoiding salary arbitration.

Tennis

Australia’s Patrick Rafter, preparing for next week’s Australian Open, lost to 17-year-old countryman Lleyton Hewitt, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, in the first round of the Sydney International.

Miscellany

The NCAA Division I board, meeting in San Antonio, voted to limit football teams to 12 games beginning in 2002, putting preseason games such as the Kickoff Classic and Pigskin Classic out of business. The exception would be years when there are 14 Saturdays in a season.

Also, the board decided to allow 28 basketball games, one more than the current limit, but removed the exemption for preseason tournaments such as the Maui Invitational and Great Alaska Shootout.

Olympic champion Hermann Maier of Austria overtook rookie teammate Benjamin Raich on the final run and won a World Cup giant slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland, his first victory since the season opener in October.

British runner Jim Peters, who broke the world marathon record four times in the 1950s, died Saturday. He was 80.