Europe Olympic ‘Vote Buying’ Scandal
A member of the International Olympic Committee executive board, Marc Hodler, stated that there had been abuses in voting for the choice of Atlanta for the 1996 Games, Sydney for the 2000 Olympics candidate, as well as Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics. An IOC member since 1963, Mr. Hodler stated that a group of four people, including one IOC member, had been involved in promising votes for payment. It is alleged that the members involved had approached various cities bidding to host the games which were offered blocs of votes if they paid between $500,000 and $1 million. The bid winning city would then be charged "something like three million to five million dollars."
Click Here for More Details
Saturday, January 23, 1999
Asia-Pacific Sydney Sucked into Olympics Scandal
John Coates ,President of the Australian Olympic Committee and a leader of the Sydney 2000 bid, admitted he had offered $35,000 apiece to two African members of the IOC. The offers were made the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games by two votes last September in Monte Carlo. Coates' reason for pledging the money was that he felt Sydney’s chances were "slipping away." He denied that it was a bribe, stating the money was within IOC guidelines and similar to plans used by bidding competitors from Beijing and Manchester.
Click Here for More Details
Tuesday, February 2, 1999
Olympics Chief Under Fire
Barry McCaffrey, the American drug policy director, suggested that Mr. Samaranch should resign following the scandal and said that the legitimacy of the IOC had been challenged due to his failure of leadership. For allegedly receiving inducements in return for votes in favour of rewarding the 2002 games to salt Lake City, nine IOC members have resigned of been expelled. Both the UK’s Minister of Sport and the Danish Culture Minister voiced their opinions on how the Olympic movement was run.
Click Here For More Details
- 1968 Three East German Luge Competitors were disqualified for heating their runners before the race.
- In 1994, the ex-husband of figure skater Tanya Harding arranged for Tanya's biggest rival, Nancy Kerrigan, to be attacked before the Olympic Games started. Kerrigan still won the silver medal, while Harding performed poorly.
- 2002 Dual gold medals were awarded in pairs figure skating to Canada and Russia, after accusations of a judging conspiracy.
- Also in 2002, three cross-country skiers, two from Russian and one from Spain, were disqualified after testing positive for use of a drug which boosts red blood cell production.
