Medal Reversal Idea Put on Hold by IOC

The International Olympic Committee wrestled Wednesday with a slew of suggested changes to some of their most hallowed traditions for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

The most controversial of the ceremonial rules changes proposed by Salt Lake City organizers would reverse the order of awarding medals.

The IOC awards them in this order: gold, silver, bronze. Organizers suggested it go bronze, silver, gold. The alternative would spread attention among all three medal winners even as it built drama toward a crescendo, the introduction of the ultimate winner.

Who knew this would be such a touchy subject? It was so sensitive that the IOC’s policy-making executive board put off a decision until its next meeting, in May in Switzerland.

“A lively discussion,” Thomas Bach of Germany, a gold medalist in fencing at the 1976 Montreal Games, observed after the meeting. He also said, “Being Olympic champion means more than being alone on the podium for 10 seconds,” adding, “I think it’s worthwhile trying for the sake of the silver- and bronze-medal winners.”

Anita DeFrantz, an IOC Vice President from Los Angeles, disagreed.

“Personally, as a lowly bronze medalist [in rowing in Montreal], I believe we honor the gold medalist,” she said. “I would have wanted the words said about me, ‘First and Olympic champion,’ then stand on the podium alone.”

The executive board approved a plan under which the 3,500 athletes who will take part in Salt Lake City will enter Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah early in the opening ceremony instead of later. The athletes can then sit and enjoy the show as opposed to standing on the field. As well, NBC and other broadcasters won’t have to slog through what is typically a lengthy parade in the midst of the event.

The board voted down these proposals:

* To have all the athletes recite the Olympic oath. Now one athlete does the job. Too much “like sort of a mass prayer,” IOC Director General Francois Carrard said.

* To allow each nation’s delegation to say a few words during the opening ceremony.

* To allow what Carrard called an “Ice Capades-like” show at the end of the Games. How this would have differed from the usual “final gala” on ice featuring skating’s medal winners was not disclosed. The “gala” will remain.

Also left for further discussion was a proposal to have the athletes grouped together by sport when they march in the closing ceremony. Since 1956, the athletes have mingled as one--without any distinction between nationalities or sports--at the closing.

Most board members seemed against that idea.

“‘We organize the Games to bring athletes together, not to split them apart,” Bach said.

The IOC gave a “maybe” to one other suggestion--a plan that comes with a big “if.” If the U.S. men’s hockey team wins the gold, the IOC will consider making the presentation of their medals part of the closing ceremony.