CORRUPTION

“The pathway of bribery & corruption surrounding bidding for Olympic Games now lies strewn with the reputations of discharged IOC members, dismissed host city bid committee officials… and embarrassed and compromised individuals and groups from one end of the Olympic Movement to the other… Many honest, dedicated, and hardworking Olympic officials the world over (most of them volunteers) were thunderstruck by the bribery and corruption disclosures emanating from Salt Lake City beginning in late November 1998.”
(Selling the 5 Rings, pp. ix-x)

“The moral reputation of the Olympic movement is one of the public relations phenomena of this century.”
(The Olympic Crisis, p. 29)

“The Olympic ideals of nonpolitical and amateur competition have long since been dishonored by ideological and commercial exploitation.”
(New York Times, Jan. 17, 1980, quoted in The Olympic Crisis)

“Olympic bid campaigns are run increasingly by private corporations or government… and the bills, receipts, secret correspondence, records of deal-making and plain corruption are hidden forever. That suits the IOC, knowing as they do what many of their members get up to in bidding cities.”
(The New Lords of the Rings, p. 116)

IOC Scandals: Money & Sex
During the bid process, host cities compete with each other in order to win the bid for a particular Olympic Games. Bid committees, backed up by land developers, construction companies, tourism, and government officials, spend millions on their campaigns. When IOC members visit host cities, they (often with their families) are treated like royalty. Kick-backs include all-expense paid vacations, meals, shopping trips, gifts, prostitutes, etc. costing tens of thousands—even hundreds of thousands of dollars—during IOC visits, all paid for by public money.
In the Berlin bid process, during a three day meeting of the IOC executive in that city, German citizens paid more than 1 million DM, including 300,000 DM for hotels and 100,000 DM for one dinner.
“62 IOC members visited Berlin and most violated the bidding rules. Only 12 of them stayed three days or less and many lingered up to seven. Some made a second visit. Many ran up unexpected bills, others left town with personal bills unpaid…
“Evidence in the few documents that escaped the shredder suggest at least DM 120,000—and probably much more—may have gone on porcelain, coins and medallions… The bid committee kept a special file on its dealings with IOC members—and every document has disappeared.”
(The New Lords of the Rings, p. 195)

In 1988, there were widespread allegations of vote-buying by S. Korean officials in boxing. Three judges were later suspended as a result. In addition, Olympic officials were accused of accepting bribes in Seoul’s bid process, including sex, money and other gifts (The New Lords of the Rings, pp. 98-99).

Similar charges were made concerning the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan:
“Near the site of the future Olympic stadium, the official [a senior IOC member interviewed by Tokyo-based journalist Eric Aldin] disclosed, was a five-star hotel reserved for the committee. It offered a unique service: elegant prostitutes, at no charge to the Olympians and their friends in the press corps.”
(The New Lords of the Rings, pp. 39-40)

In 1991, Robert Helmick, a lawyer from Iowa and former manager of the US water polo team, was accused of embezzlement:
“In 1991, the American press caught Helmick taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultancy fees from companies wanting to do business with the Olympic movement. Helmick was investigated by the IOC, but he was not charged with using his position to influence anyone on the US Olympic committee… Nonetheless, he resigned his position…”
(The New Lords of the Rings, p. 76)

As a result of their 1992 book, The Lords of the Rings, journalists Andrew Jennings & Vyv Simpson were charged by the IOC under Swiss law, for defamation. Samaranch, the fascist President of the IOC at the time, sought to have the book banned. The journalists didn’t attend the trial, believing it would be heavily against them (the IOC is based in Switzerland); theyw ere tried in abstentia and sentenced to 5 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for court costs. This didn’t stop exposes of corruption in the ‘Olympic Family’ from breaking out, however, the largest of which was still yet to come.

In 1998, allegations of corruption within the IOC and the bid process awarding the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City became public news, revealing bribery and personal benefits to IOC members through travel, accommodation, gifts, etc., all supplied by host cities. Among the most lavish gifts & entertainment were those supplied by the winning city (Salt Lake City). As part of the deal making, 13 children of IOC members were awarded scholarships at local Utah universities. Members also received free medical care. Altogether, over $1 million was spent on 14 IOC members.
The allegations prompted 4 separate investigations by the IOC, USOC, SLOC, and the US Department of Justice. The IOC was forced to dismiss six members. The six dismissed, in an obvious attempt by the IOC to ‘clean house’, were all from Third World countries (Congo, Sudan, Mali, Kenya, Chile, & Ecuador). An additional three members also resigned (from Finland, Libya, and Swaziland).
This scandal was the most serious to hit the IOC and the Olympic Industry, with the first expulsions of members for bribery. Although the scapegoats were all minor players, there is little doubt that this corruption extends throughout the ranks of the IOC and up to its highest levels.
In 1999, John Coates, President of the Australian Olympic Committee, admitted he offered two African IOC members $35,000 apiece to support Sydney’s bid the night prior to the final decision. While denying it was a bribe, Coates claimed the payments were “within IOC guidelines and similar to plans used by bidding competitors from Beijing and Manchester” (BBC News, Jan. 23, 1999).
Also in 1999, following long-time IOC President Samaranch’s retirement, the IOC ‘opened its books’ to reveal the lavish lifestyle Samaranch led. In 1998 alone, the IOC paid out over $200,000 to cover Samaranch’s living expenses for his stays at the Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland (where the IOC is based).
Fourteen years after the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, an investigation by a regional government found an “illegitimate & excessive level of hospitality” was used by the host city during the bid process, with over $4.4 million being spent to entertain IOC members. This was despite the fact that boxes of records & files were burned by Nagano’s Olympic committee shortly after the Games. The investigation’s report was released in 2006.
In 2006, Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua, in charge of 2008 Olympic Games construction, was fired for taking some $1.4 million in bribes from construction companies, one of several allegations involving city officials.
On January 6, 2008, during a live ceremony to launch China’s CCTV-5 television station with its new name, The Olympic Channel, a Beijing TV host—Hu Zwei—seized the microphone and publicly denounced her husband, a top sports anchor at the station, for having an affair with another woman.

Drug & Cheating Scandals
The IOC claims that the Olympics are most important for the youth, who need positive examples to look up to and to emulate. For decades, however, the only thing positive associated with large numbers of Olympic athletes have been their drug tests. The Olympics, and professional sports in general, are well known for the use of drugs by athletes to increase their physical abilities (i.e., steroids). Olympic competition and the potential for lucrative careers by medal winners leads to a culture of corruption (as with the Olympic Industry itself).
One of the first known cases of drug use was that of Dutch cyclist Knuth Jensen, who took amphetamines, collapsed during the race, crashed, and fatally fractured his skull, during the 1960 Olympics. The first Olympic athlete to test positive for drug use was a Swedish pentathlete at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico (he tested positive for excessive alcohol!).
Drug use by athletes became more frequent during the 1970s and ‘80s as new and better drugs became available. During the 1984 LA Games there were widespread allegations of drug use by athletes, although only 12 were officially caught:
“At the end of the Games the IOC could have revealed that many more athletes had tested positive than the 12 it admitted to. Vital documents identifying the cheats were mysteriously shredded.”
(The New Lords of the Rings, p. 237)

In 1988, Ben Johnson tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol after winning the gold medal in the 100 meter race, beating US sprinter Carl Lewis. Johnson became infamous, but only due to the high profile nature of the event. During these same games, a S. Korean boxer was awarded a win over a US boxer, despite clearly being beaten. Three judges were eventually suspended and suspected of being bribed.
At the 1994 Winter Olympics, figure skater Tonya Harding and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly hired a thug to attack Harding’s rival, Nancy Kerrigan, by hitting her knee with a baton. She went on to recover and win a silver medal, while Harding did poorly. Harding was tried & convicted for conspiring in the attack, and was banned from the Olympics for life.
In 1999, the IOC was compelled to establish the World Anti-Doping Agency, headed by former IOC vice-president Richard Pound, in response to the increasing use of drugs (and resulting scandals) by athletes. The WADA’s mandate was to establish rules & guidelines to reduce drug use, administer tests, etc. It is today based in Montreal, Canada.
During the 2000 Sydney Games, Romanian gymnast Andrea Raducan became the first gymnast to be stripped of a medal after testing positive for pseudophedrine, a banned drug.
In 2002, during the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, dual gold medals were awarded to both the Canadian & Russian pairs figure skating teams after allegations of collusion among judges were made public. Three cross-country skiers were disqualified after testing positive for darbepoetin (two stripped of their gold medals). The Austrian cross-country ski team’s residence was also searched after cleaners found equipment for taking & treating blood. A Belarussian speed skater was also disqualified.
At the 2004 Summer Games in Greece, over 18 athletes and a horse tested positive for banned drugs, including boxers, baseball players, canoeists, cyclists, weightlifters, sprinters, etc.
At the 2006 Turino Winter Games, Italian police raided the Austrian ski team residences after a coach who had been suspended during the 2002 Games (the result of the blood equipment seizure) was found working with the team again. He was later arrested after trying to drive through police checkpoint and refusing a breathalyzer test.
In January 2007, former US Olympic medalist Marion Jones, who won 5 medals at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia (3 gold & two bronze), was sentenced to 6 months in jail for lying to US federal investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs during the Games.

Sources

Selling the Five Rings; the IOC and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism, by Robert K. Barney, Stephen R. Wenn, and Scott G. Martyn, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City 2002

The New Lords of the Rings, by Andrew Jennings, Pocket Books, London 1996

The Olympic Crisis; Sports, Politics, and the Moral Order, by John Hoberman, Caratzas Publishing, Co., Inc., New York 1986

The Great Olympic Swindle: When the World Wanted Its Games Back, by Andrew Jennings, Simon & Schuster, 2000

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