IOC Decides to Keep All Sports for Athens

The International Olympic Committee on Thursday elected to keep Greco-Roman wrestling and such events as team synchronized swimming and mixed badminton doubles in the Games, proving that while there may be a presidential will to freshen the Olympic program the IOC has yet to find a way to do it.

The IOC’s policy-making executive board even opted to keep race walking in the Summer Games, an event that for years has been under fire because the rules have been subject to considerable interpretation, with judges unsure whether a competitor is walking or impermissibly running.

The IOC announced its actions as part of a review, confirming that after the 2004 Athens Games all of the 28 Summer Games sports will be assessed -- and in particular, baseball, softball and modern pentathlon, which in November were allowed by an IOC all-delegates assembly to stay in the Games.

An internal IOC commission had last August recommended that those three sports get the boot. It had also recommended that events such as race walking -- and either freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling -- be cut. That put the onus on Greco-Roman, which allows holds on the upper body only, and which has produced such U.S. champions as Rulon Gardner in 2000 and Jeff Blatnick in 1984.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has repeatedly made plain an intent to weigh the ongoing value to the Games of the current program. The IOC has capped the Summer Games at 10,500 athletes competing in 300 events spread across 28 sports -- meaning that if something new is to be added, such as golf, some event or sport currently in the Games must be cut.

Officials in the various federations that run the individual Olympic sports have been furiously rallying in an effort to save virtually every event, discipline and sport already in the Games -- many operating on the common-sense grounds that their sport or event might be next on the block.

Given such widespread political opposition, the IOC opted on Thursday to make trims only at the margins. The wrestling federation, for instance, was asked to reduce the number of medals awarded at the Games. The shooting federation will eliminate two events; which two will be chosen later. The sailing federation agreed to go to 10 events from 11, meaning 20 fewer competitors -- but not until 2012.

“Now the thing is moving,” IOC Director General Francois Carrard said, reasoning that “for the first time [the IOC] has an opportunity, really, to evaluate all the sports and assess them -- with a particular eye on those three,” meaning baseball, softball and modern pentathlon.

IOC officials cautioned, meantime, that they would keep a close watch on the walking competitions at the 2003 track and field championships in Paris, as well as at the 2004 Summer Games, so that track and field officials “achieve the expected results,” meaning races cleanly walked and judged.

In other action Thursday, Carrard also announced that the German interior minister, Otto Schily, had provided a late January report to the IOC indicating “no hint of involvement [by] organized crime to influence sports results.”

The report was requested by Thomas Bach, an IOC vice president from Germany, in the aftermath of the arrest last July by Italian authorities of alleged Russian mob figure Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov. He stands accused by U.S. prosecutors of fixing the pairs and ice dancing figure skating events at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

Tokhtakhunov has been held since his arrest in a jail in Venice, Italy. U.S. authorities are seeking his extradition.

Carrard did not provide details on Schily’s report. But he said it showed the Tokhtakhunov matter to be an “isolated case.”

Meantime, the IOC announced that Gilbert Felli, its current director of sports, has been appointed to the newly created position of Olympic Games executive director, overseeing preparations for each edition of the Games. In addition, M. Tomas Sithole of Zimbabwe, an IOC member since 1996, is expected to resign his post to become the IOC’s director of international coordination.

The appointments mark Rogge’s attempt to restructure the IOC staff and re-make the presidential circle of advisors; he took over as IOC president in July 2001, succeeding Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, who served as president for the previous 21 years.

A few weeks ago, Carrard, the longtime director general, the IOC’s top staff job, said he will be resigning to take on a position as senior advisor. The search is on for a new director general.