2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal

Last updated

The 2002 Olympic Winter Games bid scandal was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Prior to its successful bid in 1995, the city had attempted four times to secure the games, failing each time. In 1998, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were accused of taking gifts from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) during the bidding process. The allegations resulted in the expulsion of several IOC members, and the adoption of new IOC rules. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. Soon four independent investigations were underway: by the IOC, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), the SLOC, and the United States Department of Justice. Both Tom Welch and David Johnson resigned their posts as the head of the SLOC. Many others soon followed. The Department of Justice filed fifteen charges of bribery and fraud. [1] Investigations were also launched into prior bidding process by other cities, finding that members of the IOC received gifts during the bidding process for both the 1998 Winter Olympics and 2000 Summer Olympics. [2]

Contents

Winning bid

Ogden-born lawyer Tom Welch and a Utah Economic Development Professional, David Johnson, were in charge of the Salt Lake Bid Committee. From 1986 through 1995, they worked on supporting Salt Lake City's bid in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, meeting with the IOC Members and International Sport organizations.

Despite their efforts, the 1998 Games went to Nagano, Japan, in a 46-to-42 vote. Many felt the reason was that the US had recently been awarded the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Others, including Welch, believed it was because Nagano had better wined and dined the officials. [3] A Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee member complained about competing with the Japanese bid committee for the 1998 Olympic Winter Games: "We were giving out saltwater taffy and cowboy hats, and they were giving out computers. IOC members who came to inspect Nagano were put up in ritzy hot spring resorts, where they washed down expensive sushi with sake poured by kimono-clad geisha. They went home laden with souvenir gifts and expensive paintings." [4]

The Nagano Olympic bid committee had spent approximately $14 million on entertaining the 62 IOC Members and many of their companions. The precise figures are not known since Nagano destroyed the financial records after the IOC asked that the entertainment expenditures not be made public. [5] The Melbourne bid committee for the 1996 Summer Olympics discovered the quid pro quo expectations of IOC delegates when they received requests from six African IOC delegates for new cars and sexual favors from local brothels. [6] The requests were denied and the 1996 Summer Olympics went to Atlanta.

More than $16 million was spent on Utah's Olympic bidding. The high costs related to bringing IOC Members to Salt Lake City to see the venues proposed for the Games. This was a priority for the Bid Committee and more than 70 of the 100 Members of the IOC personally visited the city at the Bid Committee's expense. Community Leaders were fully behind the bid. Opportunities were created by Spencer Eccles, Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee Executive Board Member, for IOC family members to be employed at First Security Corporation Bank. Jim Jardine, Legal Advisor to the Bid Committee, assisted the relatives of IOC Members in gaining admission to the University of Utah, and Intermountain Health Care made medical facilities and treatment available to IOC Members during their visits.

Jon Huntsman, a committee leader, hosted Juan Antonio Samaranch at his lavish Park City home and together with Tom Welch presented President Samaranch with a commemorative Browning Pistol.

In June 1995, 50,000 people gathered outside the Salt Lake City Mayor's office to receive the result of the final announcement.[ citation needed ]

Scandal

Access to budget documents was routinely denied, Salt Lake City reporters say.[ citation needed ] In April 1998, the board attempted to safeguard its aura of secrecy by amending its bylaws to stipulate that any member providing the press with confidential information could be dismissed. Frank Joklik was president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

The scandal broke on 24 November 1998, when a report came out showing a letter directed to a child of an IOC member indicating the SLOC was paying the child's tuition. Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler, head of the coordination committee overseeing the organization of the 2002 games, made the accusation that a group of members of the IOC had taken bribes since the start of the bidding process in 1990 for the 1996 Olympic games. Soon, four independent investigations were underway, by the IOC, the USOC, the SLOC, and the United States Department of Justice. [7]

Before any of the investigations could even get under way, both Welch and Johnson resigned their posts as the head of the SLOC. Many others soon followed, including Joklik in January 1999. The Department of Justice filed charges against the two: fifteen charges of bribery and fraud. Johnson and Welch were eventually acquitted of all criminal charges in December 2003. [1]

As part of the investigation, the IOC recommended expelling six IOC members, while continuing the investigation on several others. The six members were Agustin Arroyo of Ecuador, Zein El Abdin Ahmed Abdel Gadir of Sudan, Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo, Lamine Keita of Mali, Charles Mukora of Kenya, Sergio Santander Fantini of Chile, and David Sikhulumi Sibandze of Swaziland, though Sibandze resigned during the investigation. Each person was accused of receiving money from the SLOC, either in direct payments, land purchase agreements, tuition assistance, political campaign donations or charitable donations for a local cause. [8]

Ten members of the IOC were expelled and another ten were sanctioned. [9] This was the first expulsion or sanction for corruption in the more than a century the IOC had existed. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. Stricter rules were adopted for future bids, and ceilings were put into place as to how much IOC members could accept from bid cities. Additionally, new term and age limits were put into place for IOC membership, and fifteen former Olympic athletes were added to the committee.

In 2006, a report ordered by the Nagano region's governor said the Japanese city provided millions of dollars in an "illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality" to IOC members, including US$4.4 million spent on entertainment alone. [10]

Aftermath

Bain Capital founder and CEO Mitt Romney (who eventually went on to become Governor of Massachusetts and United States Senator from Utah) was brought in to head the SLOC. [11] Romney aided in reorganizing the committee, helped to begin fixing the budget, which at the time was US$379 million short, and renewed sponsor enthusiasm. [12] The federal funding accounted for infrastructure improvements only. [13]

Bid history

Early bid attempts
GameEvent
1932 Winter Olympics In 1929, only five years after the first games in Chamonix, France, Salt Lake City attempted for the first time to bid for the Winter Olympics. The Utah Ski Club tried to procure the 1932 Games for Salt Lake, but they went to Lake Placid, New York, instead. Due to early Olympic rules (which have since changed), Salt Lake could not bid for the 1936 Games, since the summer games host (Germany) had rights to the winter games.
1972 Winter Olympics State and city officials got the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) endorsement, but they lost the bid to Sapporo, Japan.
1976 Winter Olympics The USOC picked Denver, Colorado, over Salt Lake City to represent the United States in bidding. Denver won the bid, but taxpayers voted providing partial funding for the games, and Denver withdrew as a result. Salt Lake put itself forward as a candidate, but in the fallout, the games were awarded to Innsbruck, Austria, which had recently hosted in 1964.
1992 Winter Olympics Salt Lake City did not try to bid again until 1985 for the 1992 Games, but the USOC went with Anchorage, Alaska. After Anchorage lost both bids for the 1992 and 1994 Winter Games to Albertville and Lillehammer, respectively, Salt Lake was back in the running for the 2002 Games.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Olympic Committee</span> Governing body of Olympic sports

The International Olympic Committee is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olympic Games</span> Major international multi-sport event

The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories participating; by default the Games generally substitute for any World Championships the year in which they take place. The Olympic Games are held every four years; since 1994, they have been alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winter Olympic Games</span> Major international multi-sport event

The Winter Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in Chamonix, France. The modern Olympic Games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC to 394 AD. The Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1,500 years later in 1894, leading to the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority. The original five Winter Olympic Sports were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing, and skating. The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948. Until 1992, the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games were held in the same year. A decision to change this was made in 1986, when during the 91st International Olympic Committee session, IOC members decided to alternate the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games on separate four-year cycles in even-numbered years. Also, at that same congress it was decided that 1992 Winter Olympics would be the last to be held in the same year as the Summer Games and that to change the rotation, the edition that would be held in 1996 would be brought forward by two years, being scheduled to 1994. After this edition, the next one was to be held in 1998 when the 4-year Olympic Cycle resumed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Winter Olympics</span> Multi-sport event in Salt Lake City, Utah, US

The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held from February 8 to 24, 2002, in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bids for the Olympic Games</span> Bids to host the Olympic Games

National Olympic Committees that wish to host an Olympic Games select cities within their territories to put forth bids for the Olympic Games. The staging of the Paralympic Games is automatically included in the bid. Since the creation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, which successfully appropriated the name of the Ancient Greek Olympics to create a modern sporting event, interested cities have rivaled for selection as host of the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. 51 different cities have been chosen to host the modern Olympics: three in Eastern Europe, five in East Asia, one in South America, three in Oceania, nine in North America and all the others in Western Europe. No Central American, African, Central Asian, Middle Eastern, South Asian, or Southeast Asian city has ever been chosen to host an Olympics.

Peaks Ice Arena is an indoor ice hockey and figure skating arena in Provo, Utah, located 43 miles (69 km) south of Salt Lake City. Along with the Maverik Center in West Valley City, it was built as an ice hockey and figure skating practice venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics. It currently serves as the home of the Utah Valley University men’s ice hockey team, Peaks Youth Hockey Association, several high school teams, the Peaks Figure Skating Club, and a Learn-to-Skate USA program for beginning skaters of all ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bids for the 2000 Summer Olympics</span>

Five cities made presentations to the IOC Session in Monte Carlo to host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Games were awarded to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on 23 September 1993 at 18:17 UTC. The other cities were Beijing (China), Manchester, Berlin (Germany) and Istanbul (Turkey). 11 days earlier in a different process, Sydney had been chosen by the International Paralympic Committee to host the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Berlin, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bids for the 2002 Winter Olympics</span>

Four cities made the shortlist with their bids to host the 2002 Winter Olympics, which were awarded to Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, on June 16, 1995. The other cities shortlisted by the IOC Selection Committee chaired by Thomas Bach were Sion, Switzerland; Östersund, Sweden; and Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The host city selection procedure to for the 2002 Winter Olympics faced a scandal regarding the interactions between the Salt Lake City bid team and International Olympic Committee (IOC) members; ten IOC members resigned as a result, as did Salt Lake City bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson. Nevertheless, Salt Lake City overwhelmingly won the right to host the Games, needing only one round to gain the absolute majority of the votes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Olympic Oval</span> American speed skating oval

The Utah Olympic Oval is an indoor speed skating oval located 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, in Kearns, Utah. The Oval was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and it hosted the long track speed skating events for the 2002 games. Inside the facility the 400 meter skating track surrounds two international sized ice sheets, and is itself surrounded by a 442-meter running track. Due to its high altitude, 4,675 feet (1,425 m), and the associated low air resistance, ten Olympic records and nine world records were set at the Oval during the 2002 games, the largest number of world records ever set at one event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Olympic Park</span> Winter sports park in Summit County, Utah, United States

The Utah Olympic Park is a winter sports park built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and is located in Summit County northwest of Park City, Utah, United States. During the 2002 games the park hosted the bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, ski jumping, and Nordic combined events. It still serves a training center for Olympic and development level athletes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Olympic Park Track</span> Winter Sports Track near Park City, Utah

The Utah Olympic Park Track is a bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track in the United States, located in the Utah Olympic Park near Park City, Utah. During the 2002 Winter Olympics in nearby Salt Lake City, the track hosted the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events. Today the track still serves as a training center for Olympic and development level athletes and hosts numerous local and international competitions. It is one of two national tracks; the other is at Mt. Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid, New York.

Fraser Bullock is an American entrepreneur who is a partner of Sorenson Capital and former COO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) of the 2002 Winter Olympics. He is the current president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, bidding for the 2030 Winter Olympics. Prior to joining the SLOC, Bullock had run his own private equity firm.

The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002 (SLOC) was the organization responsible for the 2002 Winter Olympics and 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, USA. The SLOC secured their bid for the 2002 Olympic Games in 1995. After the SLOC was exposed to be in disarray in the ensuing years, Mitt Romney was hired in 1999 to turn around the failing organization. Under Romney's leadership, the SLOC ended up hosting a successful Olympic games with financial surpluses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venues of the 2002 Winter Olympics</span>

The 2002 Winter Olympic Games were held in and around Salt Lake City, United States from February 8 to 24, 2002, and the Paralympics from March 7 to 16, 2002. The sporting events were held in ten competitive venues, while non-competitive events, such as the opening ceremony, were held in six other venues. Three venues were also created for training purposes. All Olympic venues were scattered throughout Northern Utah and the Wasatch Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bids for the 1998 Winter Olympics</span>

The selection process for the 1998 Winter Olympics consisted of five bids, and saw Nagano, Japan, be selected ahead of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States; Östersund, Sweden; Jaca, Spain; and Aosta, Italy. The selection was made at the 97th IOC Session in Birmingham, United Kingdom, on 15 June 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bids for the 2026 Winter Olympics</span>

A total of seven bids were initially submitted for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Four of the bids were subsequently withdrawn after entering the candidature stage, leaving Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and Stockholm–Åre, Sweden as the only two remaining candidate bids. Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo was elected as the host city at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.

The closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics took place on an abstract shaped ice rink designed by Seven Nielsen at Rice–Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, the United States, on 24 February 2002.

Tasuku Tsukada was a Japanese politician, and past mayor of the city of Nagano, the capital of Nagano Prefecture, in central Japan. Tsukada won his first mayoral contest in 1985. He served four full 4-year terms, until November 10, 2001. In 1997, Tsukada served as the Vice President of the Japan Association of City Mayors.

The closing ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics took place at Nagano Olympic Stadium, Nagano, Japan, on 22 February 1998. It began at 18:00 JST and finished at approximately 19:41 JST. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combines the formal and ceremonial closing of this international sporting event, including farewell speeches and closing of the Games by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The Olympic flame has been extinguished.

References

  1. 1 2 Lex Hemphill (December 6, 2003). "Acquittals End Bid Scandal That Dogged Winter Games". The New York Times. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
  2. ↑ Mallon, Dr. Bill (2000). "The Olympic Bribery Scandal" (PDF). The Journal of Olympic History. 8 (2). International Society of Olympic Historians: 11–27. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 3, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ Gorrell, Mike (April 22, 2010). "Juan Antonio Samaranch remembered for Salt Lake City's Olympics and scandal". Salt Lake Tribune .
  4. ↑ Macintyre, Donald (February 1, 1999). "Japan's Sullied Bid". Time Magazine. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ Jordan, Mary; Sullivan, Kevin (January 21, 1999), "Nagano Burned Documents Tracing '98 Olympics Bid", Washington Post, pp. A1, retrieved August 20, 2016
  6. ↑ Abrahamson, Alan (January 21, 1999). "Scandal Heats Up Globally". LA Times.
  7. ↑ "An Olympian Scandal". American Journalism Review. April 1999. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Olympic bribery scandal: The six IOC members recommended for expulsion". The Guardian . January 25, 1999. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Samaranch reflects on bid scandal with regret". Salt Lake Deseret News. May 19, 2001. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
  10. ↑ Roche, Lisa Riley (January 9, 2006). "Report assails Nagano over bid". Deseret Morning News . Archived from the original on September 15, 2008 – via FindArticles.
  11. ↑ "Romney hired to lead Salt Lake Olympic organizing committee". CNN. February 11, 1999. Retrieved November 7, 2007.[ dead link ]
  12. ↑ Johnson, Kirk (September 19, 2007). "In Olympics Success, Romney Found New Edge". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
  13. ↑ "GAO Report B-282746 GAO/GGD-00-183n". September 8, 2000.

Notations

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.