Amid links to bribery probe, Olympic official quits role in assessing L.A., Paris bids for 2024 Summer Games
Faced with questions about his ties to a corruption investigation, a top Olympic official has stepped down from his role as chief evaluator for the 2024 Olympic bids being presented by Los Angeles and Paris.
Frankie Fredericks, who has denied any wrongdoing in the probe, announced his resignation as chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission on Tuesday.
“Paris and Los Angeles are presenting two fantastic candidatures, and I do not wish to become a distraction,” Fredericks told the Associated Press in a statement.
The IOC’s executive board stated in a separate news release that it had accepted his decision but emphasized “the presumption of innocence.”
Last week, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that Fredericks received almost $300,000 at the same time he and his colleagues selected the host of the 2016 Summer Games, choosing Rio de Janeiro over Chicago and other candidates.
It was the latest development from an ongoing French probe into whether large sums have been paid to buy the votes that determined the hosts of the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.
So far, much of the attention has centered on Lamine Diack, a former IOC member and head of the international track federation. His son, Papa Massata Diack, has also been implicated.
Fredericks, a former Olympic sprinter from Namibia, has characterized the money he received as payment for marketing services.
In his role on the 2024 evaluation commission, he was scheduled to lead an IOC team on visits to L.A. and Paris this spring.
Because IOC members are not allowed to make official trips to bid cities, the evaluation report could have significant influence on next September’s vote to select a winner.
Fredericks also stepped down from the coordination commission for the 2018 Youth Olympics Games in Buenos Aires and, previously, from his post with the track federation’s task force addressing the Russian doping scandal.
IOC President Thomas Bach said he will fill the open evaluation spot with Patrick Baumann, an IOC member and head of the international basketball federation.
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