IOC’s De Merode Stays, After All

In a rapid-fire two-step that shone a bright light on the fierce back-room politics buffeting the International Olympic Committee’s anti-doping fight, the longtime head of the IOC’s medical commission tendered his resignation--but was promptly asked Wednesday to stay.

Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium sent a letter on Monday to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch saying he was upset at relentless criticism of the commission and--by extension--himself.

Critics have maintained for years that De Merode hasn’t fought doping aggressively enough or has been involved in alleged cover-ups of positive tests at the Games.

For instance, he was at the center of a controversy over the shredding of drug-test results at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, acknowledging years later that several tests that had been in his hotel suite were destroyed in an “accident.” He also maintained it was the fault of organizers of the L.A. Games whom, he said, were in a hurry to close up shop immediately after the Olympics ended.

Left unsaid in the letter sent to Samaranch was what De Merode--a Belgian who prefers to speak in French--made abundantly clear in comments Wednesday to a French wire-service reporter: He is peeved that his role in the anti-doping fight has been diminished by the relatively new World Anti-Doping Agency.

The agency, launched in late 1998 and headed by IOC vice president Dick Pound of Canada, is coordinating a global out-of-competition testing program for banned performance-enhancing drugs. Last month, the IOC also announced WADA will be supplying observers to the drug-testing process at the Sydney Games--in essence, keeping an eye on the medical commission and local Australian agencies.

As medical commission chairman, De Merode had been scheduled to present a report to the IOC executive board this week in Rio but did not make the trip.

Speaking Wednesday from Monaco, he told Agence France-Presse: “We shouldn’t be observed by people from outside the IOC,” adding, “This campaign of denigration is unacceptable and untimely.”

Presented at the beginning of its meeting Wednesday with De Merode’s resignation letter, the executive board unanimously urged De Merode to stay on. Apparently appeased, he quickly agreed.

The episode with De Merode transpired even as new U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Norman P. Blake Jr. got his own introduction Wednesday to the ways of the IOC.

Blake, who took over the USOC in February, met Samaranch for the first time Wednesday. In a half-hour meeting later described by both sides as cordial, Samaranch observed to Blake: “Whether you know it or not, you’re going to be measured by medal count,” meaning the number of medals U.S. athletes win at the Games.

This was an echo of comments made repeatedly at home in recent weeks by Blake, who is in the midst of a restructuring of the USOC.