Eyewitness To Australia: Samaranch Remains A Controversial Figure
The IOC session this week enacted more reforms as a result of the Salt Lake Olympic bid scandal.
But the retiring leader of the elite club remains a controversial figure.
Olympic Specialist Bruce Lindsay has the story from Sydney.
Sydney is the swan song for Juan Antonio Samaranch--it's his final Olympics as head of the IOC.
So, what are his remaining goals before he retires next year?
"To finish all these reforms, all these important changes we are doing within the International Olympic Committee," he says.
Samaranch claims as reforms, since the Salt Lake scandal:
- changes in the bid process
- changes in the selection of new members
- steps toward less secrecy in its meetings
Yet Samaranch, who likes to be called "your excellency," remains a lightning rod for criticism of his style, and his organization.
"We are not very worried because we are used to read things and rumors and so on. They are not true."
It's partly the aloof manner, some detractors say, that wrankles them.
That, and elitist trappings of IOC membership, like chauffered cars in host cities, some sporting special Olympic plates.
An official hotel spiffed up for them, and given tight security.
On the other hand, for the first time, IOC sessions are now open to the press. Sort of.
Reporters may watch a on a TV screen from across town.
The Olympics became the commercial success they are, during Samaranch's reign.
And he doesn't hesitate to take the credit.
He says, "I am sure that in 2001 I will leave to my successor... an organization much stronger than I received."
One thing few people will dispute is that Samaranch is the most powerful man in the world of sports.
