Is Corruption Old IOC News?

Robert Helmick, the former U.S. Olympic Committee president who resigned from the International Olympic Committee in 1991, said he spoke out about corruption within the IOC six years ago, only to have his allegations dismissed.

“I’m certainly not surprised by the type of activities that are going on in Salt Lake City, because they’ve been going on for years,” Helmick said in a phone interview Wednesday. “The people should have known about the IOC getting highly excessive, because I said so in [1993].”

Helmick alluded to an interview he gave the Norwegian publication Ol Magasinet Dagningen, which was printed in May 1993, in which Helmick called for changes in the “corrupt system” by which the IOC awards the Olympic Games--a system “nobody no longer controls.”

“When the IOC says it had no knowledge [of the Salt Lake City briberies], that’s crap,” Helmick said. “Because a lot of us were saying at the time, ‘There’s something going on here.’

” . . . There are some very good people in the IOC, but the system has gotten corrupt. I think what happened with Salt Lake [is that] they were playing the game that the IOC implicitly required. People [today] look at that and say, ‘That’s corrupt.’

“Had they looked at it 10 years ago, they would have said the same thing. That’s where I fault the IOC. The system has gotten corrupt and they haven’t done anything about it.”

Helmick resigned from the IOC in September 1991 amid allegations of conflict of interest, allegations he says were “hurting our preparation for the [1992] Games in Albertville.” He said IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and other top IOC officials “in the know” should also resign in the wake of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.

“I think the officers ought to step down,” Helmick said. “It’s the only way to show credibility.”

Helmick referred to last week’s resignation of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s top two officials, president Frank Joklik and senior vice president Dave Johnson.

“If the officers of Salt Lake City are taking responsibility for the actions of their people, you would think the IOC leadership under which this occurred should be taking some responsibility for their members, rather than distancing themselves,” Helmick said.

Olympic Notes

The IOC has ruled out sanctions against Salt Lake City officials in connection with the corruption scandal, an IOC investigator said. “The commission will not recommend any action against Salt Lake City,” said Jacques Rogge, a member of the IOC panel looking into allegations of bribery in the city’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games. “There is no action to be taken.” . . . Quebec City will claim $12.5 million in compensation if irregularities are proven in the choice of Salt Lake City. That’s the amount the city spent on its bid for the 2002 Games. . . . Salt Lake Olympic boosters used state airplanes to ferry IOC members and others to scenic spots during the hunt for the 2002 Winter Games, a state executive confirmed Wednesday. The bid committee reimbursed the state $9,561--the going rate for state agencies--for eight flights in 1994-95, said Tom Warne, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.