Olympic Scandal Resignation

A Finnish member of the IOC resigned today, the first member of the international committee to step down in the widening bribery scandal.

The International Olympic Committee said that Pirjo Haeggman, one of 13 members it is investigating, presented her resignation to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

"The IOC president thanks Mrs. Haeggman for all the services which she gave to the Olympic movement as an athlete and as a member of the organization," an IOC statement said.

Haeggman, 47, was an IOC member since 1981 and one of the first two women on the committee.

A middle-distance runner in the 1972, '76 and '80 Olympics, she was 12-time Finnish champion at 100 and 400 meters.

Haeggman's ex-husband, Bjarne, reportedly worked briefly for the Salt Lake bid committee and for 20 months in an Ontario government job initiated by the Toronto committee bidding for the 1996 Summer Games.

In addition, Paul Henderson, who was head of the Toronto bid, said his organization paid the rent in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, for Haeggman and her ex-husband.

Henderson said in an e-mail sent Monday to Toronto news media that the money was to be repaid to the Toronto committee and was neither a gift nor an attempt to win the IOC member's vote.

Haeggman is only the second IOC member to resign in a scandal. Robert Helmick stepped down in 1991 as an IOC member and president of the U.S. Olympic Committee amid allegations of conflict of interest in contracts with sports associations.

On Monday, IOC officials said their investigation into the allegations of corruption will extend beyond Salt Lake's efforts to secure the Winter Olympics to bids made by other cities in recent years.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said a six-member IOC investigating commission is determined "to look at every piece of evidence" concerning graft, bribery and vote-buying allegations.

He was quoted by The Washington Post as saying the inquiry no longer is confined to Salt Lake City's bid but that investigators are gathering facts worldwide.

People involved in other cities' Olympic bids recently have come forward with assertions that some IOC members suggested that how they would vote might hinge on how well they were treated.

"For many years, there were rumors. We have never been able to have the beginning of evidence," Carrard said. "We had allegations; we had hearsay. When we tried to get evidence, we always faced a wall of silence, even by people who said publicly they would disclose certain things."

Now, due to the Salt Lake City scandal, Carrard said, the IOC is for the first time uncovering hard facts, including "names, amounts, account numbers and access to files and documents from where we could go on with the investigation."

The IOC's panel, led by vice president Dick Pound of Canada, has asked 13 IOC members to explain actions by theselves or members of their families. Samaranch says nine cases are serious enough to possibly lead to expulsion.

The IOC Executive Board will reccommend action Jan. 24, with the full 115-member IOC called into special session March 17-18 to decide their fate and consider changes in the bidding process.

Pound, interviewed on ABC's "Nightline" Monday night, said that before the March meeting, "we will write to the leaders of all the bid committees in recent games ... and ask them to come forward now that they can see we're serious" about getting rid of the bad apples.

"Maybe they'll come forward. Maybe we'll find some additional names. Maybe we'll find the same people," he said. "It's not something we're shirking. It's going to be painful and it's embarrassing but we're going to come out of it, I think, a stronger and better Olympics."

In Utah, Olympic critics demanded a statewide vote on whether taxpayers are willing to accept potential financial liability.

A similar initiative effort four years ago was unsuccessful, but that was before the scandal over Salt Lake Olympics officials' distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, scholarships and gifts to IOC members and their relatives.

Utahns for Responsible Public Spending is not sure even a stronger, better Olympics should be in Utah, particularly if its taxpayers may have to foot part of the bill.

"We've gotta figure out who's going to pay and quit pointing fingers at each other," said Stephen Pace, head of the group critical of Utah holding the games. "The governor says the state has a moral obligation. Do voters believe they do?"

The group filed a proposed initiative petition with the lieutenant governor's office. If the Legislature doesn't force the IOC to share in the financial risks or call a public vote on state guarantees of public debt, the group will begin circulating the petition to put the issue on the 2000 general election ballot. It would need around 125,000 signatures.

The city, by contract with the IOC, is obligated to pay any debts left behind by the games.

Utah's governor in 1991 signed a contract saying the state would stand behind Salt Lake in meeting any shortfall, and current Gov. Mike Leavitt says the state has a moral obligation. Yet he acknowledges Utah's Constitution prohibits the state from guaranteeing a city's debt.

SLOC chairman Robert Garff has said he remains confident organizers can raise all the money they need to meet the $1.4 billion budget

Michael Payne, IOC marketing director, said no sponsor had pulled out, and the amount raised through sponsorship to date is $900 million - more than at this point for any other Winter Olympics.

"As far as Salt Lake City is concerned, let me say unequivocally that the sponsor issues are not putting the games in jeopardy," he said. "The 2002 Salt Lake City Games will go on nd will be extremely successful."

In his state-of-the-state address Monday night, Leavitt noted Utah's "relentless soul-searching" over the scandal and its willingness to expose the mistakes and form new Olympic leadership. The IOC should do the same, he said.

"They must tell all, they must expel the offenders, they must change the bid process and return the Olympics to its place as a force of human ennoblement," Leavitt said.

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