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Thursday, September 14
Sydney ready despite distractions
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Sydney is ready to put on a great show
that won't be tarnished by the transport problems and tacky street
look of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, IOC president Juan Antonio
Samaranch said Thursday.
At a news conference on the eve of his final games as
International Olympic Committee leader, Samaranch also announced he
was inviting Australian swimming icon Dawn Fraser to sit with him
at Friday night's opening ceremony -- apparently ruling her out as
the final torchbearer.
Under often hostile questioning, Samaranch also defended the
IOC's anti-doping efforts and his intervention on behalf of Olympic
officials accused of criminal activity.
"Sydney is ready," Samaranch said. "The IOC is very much
satisfied and confident that arrangements are in place for a very
highly successful games. The enthusiasm of the people is
outstanding. The weather should be fine."
"Sydney is very different from Atlanta," he added. "The look
of the games is fantastic, with banners and so on. But wait until
Oct. 1 to know my impression of the games."
Samaranch and the IOC were critical of the "look of the games"
in Atlanta, where parts of the city were taken over by street
vendors and out-of-control commercialism. Tight restrictions were
placed on such activities in Sydney.
Like Atlanta, Sydney has experienced problems with the Olympic
transport system. Dozens of drivers quit the bus service, saying
they were angry about working conditions and timetables.
But Samaranch said he had been assured by Sydney Olympics
Minister Michael Knight that "transport will not be a problem
during the games."
"Every games is the same," Samaranch said. "At the beginning
we have transportation problems. Yes, they have problems. I think
they are solving the problems."
Meanwhile, Samaranch said his wife, Maria Theresa, was ill and
would not travel to Sydney. He invited Fraser, who won four Olympic
gold medals and four silver medals in swimming in the 1960s, to be
his guest at Friday's ceremony.
"She accepted," he said. "She will be the Olympic first
lady."
Fraser has been one of the most frequently mentioned candidates
for the honor of lighting the Olympic flame, but that now appeared
unlikely.
The Salt Lake City bribery scandal boiled over again at IOC
meetings this week, with Utah organizers warning the IOC to brace
for the release of thousands of pages of documents related to the
government investigation.
Samaranch said the IOC would work with Salt Lake organizing
committee president Mitt Romney to see if the documents can be
screened for any false information ahead of their release.
"To attack members of the IOC only with rumors not facts -- we
cannot accept," he said.
One member, Lambis Nikolaou of Greece, said the IOC should move
its 2002 general assembly from Salt Lake to Lausanne, Switzerland.
But Samaranch said, "The session of February 2002 will be in Salt
Lake City."
Samaranch, who steps down in July after 21 years as IOC
president, was asked whether he would attend the Salt Lake Games.
"If I am invited, yes," he said. "I am waiting for an
invitation."
Samaranch was asked about a report from a corruption watchdog
group called Transparency International. At a news conference
Wednesday in Berlin, Peter Eiger, chairman of the group, said, "On
the eve of the Olympic Games, it is worth recording that some of
the leaders of the bribe-scarred IOC are still running the show."
Samaranch said he was unaware of the report and could not
comment.
"We are not very worried," he said. "We are used to read, to
see rumors, and so on that are not true."
Samaranch said a test for the banned drug EPO -- which boosts
endurance by stimulating the production of red blood cells -- has
been "successful as a deterrent" since it was introduced for
out-of-competition controls before and during the Sydney Games.
Critics say the test is ineffective because it detects the use
of EPO going back only a few days, while another test -- bypassed by
the IOC -- could trace the drug back as far as 28 days.
"The most important thing for us is to make sure the first
tests we do stand up to the barrage of legal challenges I expect
will arise," said IOC vice president Dick Pound, head of the new
World Anti-Doping Agency. "Science may improve over time so we can
get a better reach back"
Samaranch also faced several questions about Mohamad "Bob"
Hasan, the IOC member from Indonesia who is under detention in
Jakarta awaiting trial next week on corruption charges.
Samaranch wrote to the Indonesian president earlier this year on
behalf of Hasan. The Indonesian government criticized Samaranch
this week for trying to get Hasan released to attend the Sydney
Games.
But Samaranch said the letter was "nothing related to inviting
Hasan to attend the Olympic Games."
There were also questions about Gafur Rakhimov, an international
boxing official from Uzbekistan, and Carl Ching, a basketball
official from Hong Kong. The two -- who have been accused of having
links to organized crime -- were denied entry by the Australian
government.
Samaranch wrote to Prime Minister John Howard seeking an
explanation, and accepted his response that the decision was taken
on security grounds.
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