IOC Investigates Prominent Australian

A day after a crisis meeting to clean up the Salt Lake bribery scandal, the International Olympic Committee began investigating a prominent Australian member after his ex-wife said the couple received $6,300 in jewelry from a bid city.

The former wife of Phil Coles sent a fax to IOC officials stating the couple received diamond cuff links and a gold necklace during a trip to Athens in 1990.

The statement said the jewelry was presented to the couple by an unidentified man involved with Greece’s failed bid for the 1996 Games.

IOC rules prohibit members from accepting gifts worth more than $150.

The former Mrs. Coles said the cuff links were turned into gold earrings, adding, “This is my final statement on the matter.”

A photo in Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald showed her wearing what the paper said were those earrings.

The allegations previously had been reported in the Australian media, but the IOC said it wouldn’t investigate unless it received documented evidence.

“As a result of the fact that a communication has been received from a third party, the executive board decided to investigate the matter further,” the IOC said in a statement Friday.

Phil and Georgina Coles went through a bitter divorce in the early 1990s.

Phil Coles, 67, repeatedly has denied wrongdoing, and repeated Friday that he would not resign from the IOC.

“No, absolutely not,” he said when asked if he planned to step down.

Coles said he would remain on leave from the board of the organizing committee for the 2000 Sydney Games “until the matter is resolved.”

Coles previously had resigned from his paid position as international relations director of the Australian Olympic Committee.

In Sydney, Olympic boss Michael Knight called on Coles to quit the board of the Sydney Organizing Committee (SOCOG).

“I would be very surprised if he walked back into the next SOCOG board meeting,” Knight said. “The best thing that Phil could do, in his best interest, to stop all this pain that he’s getting publicly, is to stop bearing that pain and make a decision himself.”

Under the Olympic Charter, IOC members from the host country must serve on the board of the organizing committee. As long as Coles remains on the IOC, he would keep his SOCOG position.

Coles was one of more than 20 members implicated in the bribery scandal involving Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games. In an unprecedented purge, six members were expelled Wednesday; four others had previously resigned.

He was among 10 members who received warnings in the Salt Lake case from a special IOC inquiry commission. He received the most severe degree of censure for accepting excessive travel, gifts and hospitality from Salt Lake bidders.

The inquiry panel said Coles could face expulsion “should similar facts ever occur again.”

In a statement Friday, the IOC said the inquiry commission was being dissolved and its responsibilities were being taken over by the executive board, pending the formation of a new ethics committee.

The move takes the Coles case out of the control of Dick Pound, the IOC vice president who headed the inquiry panel.

Pound had been accused of showing favoritism toward Coles, a longtime friend. The two dined together last month after Coles testified before Pound’s commission.

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Primo Nebiolo, one of the most powerful executives in international sports, was turned down by Sydney organizers when he requested an allotment of free tickets for sports officials at the 2000 Olympics.

Nebiolo, the head of track and field’s governing body, is also president of the Assn.of Summer Olympics International Federations.

He wanted at least 1% of the seats at all venues in Sydney set aside, making his request in his capacity as president of the Olympic group.

That would amount to as many as 1,100 seats at the biggest venue, the 110,000-seat Olympic stadium where track and field will be held.

Nebiolo might now take his case to the IOC at an executive board meeting today.

“He has been told no, but Primo doesn’t give up,” said Don Porter, president of the International Softball Federation from Oklahoma City.