Lawyers for Bid Leaders Want Case Thrown Out

Attorneys representing Olympic bid leaders accused of securing the Games through bribery argued Thursday that the charges should be tossed out of federal court because there’s no victim, hence no crime.

Bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson are accused of giving International Olympic Committee members and their families more than $1 million in cash, gifts and scholarships to steer votes to Salt Lake City.

“The IOC, how have they been victimized?” lawyer Max Wheeler said.

Magistrate Ronald Boyce, presiding at the hearing, had an answer: “I think if you ask Mr. Samaranch, I think he could give you a very good description of what [this corruption] meant to him.” Boyce was referring to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Boyce said the payments could be viewed as a threat to the integrity of the IOC. It’s not known when Boyce will rule on the motion to dismiss the charges.

--Associated Press

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It’s one thing for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to declare the motto of the 2002 Winter Games to be “Light the Fire Within.”

It was another thing Thursday for organizers to light the symbolic fire that traced the route the Olympic torch will follow in Utah a year from now.

Despite a minor glitch at an outdoor ceremony marking the one-year-out point for the Games, SLOC President Mitt Romney said everything is on track for an event that will dispel public distrust created by scandals that preceded the awarding of the Games to Salt Lake City.

“It’s very much in my interest to keep people’s expectations low,” Romney said. “They may think, ‘It’s a little city in the mountains and hard to get to.’ I want to keep expectations low so when they come they say, ‘This is the best snow on earth. The mountains are fabulous. These people are as nice as you’d expect in the American West.’

“The only thing that will keep us from having great Games is if those of us on the organizing committee don’t dot ‘I’s’ and cross ‘T’s.’ ”

Romney, just back from International Olympic Committee meetings in Dakar, Senegal, joined two-time Olympic figure skater Todd Eldredge at the ceremony at Gallivan Center. “Lighting the fire within is so much more than words,” a shivering Eldredge said. “I can use that fire right now.”

Despite the cold, Romney said Thursday ranked among his best days in the job because of the clear, sunny weather and a growing sense of anticipation over the Games. He cited the recruitment of 47,500 volunteers, record ticket sales of $161 million and the scheduling of cultural events that will be held during the Games as reasons for cheer.

“I came down from the clouds after being in Sydney and thinking, ‘Man, how can we do Games that are this good?’ ” he said. “Then I came to realize host cities don’t compete, athletes do. We want these to be great Games that touch the heart, that people remember as a magical moment in a winter wonderland. . . . We’re making sure the heart of the Games revolves around the athletes.”

Romney said his remaining tasks include “boring but critical” matters such as ensuring transportation and information systems will run properly. And he said he hadn’t given a thought to Thursday’s appearance in federal court by Welch and Johnson.

“The scandal and trial are a whole different sphere, and my guess is the American people feel the same way,” Romney said. “They think a final accounting is appropriate. We should find out what happened . . . [but] the Games are about the Olympians, about the world championships that are coming to Utah. The scandal and the Games are increasingly separate.”