With the opening of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I had to admit I was quite excited about it, as I was seeing many familiar sites in a place I once called home for an extended period of time, and in which I have numerous fond memories. The opening ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Stadium on The University of Utah campus (logo, left) reminded me of the days when I was a transfer student some 20 years ago and of many wonderful learning experiences I had while there.
More important, it helped me appreciate how rewarding some of the friendships were that had either been formed and/or deepened there, particularly with two of my best friends - Bryan, who I have known for 28 years, and Randall, who I have known for over 20. Bryan still lives in the Salt Lake area, and Randall (pictured, right) and his family recently relocated in the course of his employment.
As I saw the torch being lit, I smiled and remembered many of the things that I did enjoy about Salt Lake City while I was there. Looking back in the 18 years since leaving Utah, I am generally pleased with the direction and learning experiences that have come my way both in the home and in the workplace, and especially now as I have the privilege of working with so many talented professionals in putting this magazine together on a daily basis.
One of the first things I noticed and appreciated the most about this Olympics over the last one was the noticeable absence of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain (photo, left). If ever there was a Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the International Olympic Movement, Samaranch was it. The seventh president of the IOC, his predecessors came and went and each of them had their quirks; however, Samaranch took them to a new level of excess. Bluntly put, this guy was a piece of work.
Maneuvering himself into the Presidency of the International Olympic Committee in Moscow on the first ballot in 1980, this guy was nothing more than the lounge lizard of the Olympic movement and in many ways symbolized all that was wrong with the Olympics. His attitude was such that his way of ’doing business’ begged for corruption to come charging through the door and take firm root within the Olympic community. Just as FDR wanted to be America’s dictator (perhaps that was why Eleanor liked ’Uncle Joe’ Stalin so much), Samaranch was the IOC dictator by getting himself elected to an eight-year term and to successive four-year terms until he was forced out at age 80. For 21 years, this man ruled the IOC with an iron fist. Although he technically did not have a vote on any of the committees, a raising of his eyebrow often and almost always spoke volumes, and the members of the committee knew that in order to get along, you had to go along.
Samaranch was a man - only a man - yet he had become totally addicted to power and its attendant trappings. Lord Acton put it best when he said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Nobody in modern times personified that more than Samaranch, and he did that even more so than former President Bill Clinton of the United States. The reason I say that is because Clinton was corrupt all along even in his little trailer park in Hope, Arkansas, and Clinton was in office only eight years. Samaranch insisted on being called "Your Excellency". Give me a break! He was just a man - like the rest of us - who put his pants on one leg at a time.
Fortunately, the IOC saw the dangers of this corruption in the scandals that came to light in the way of bribes and kickbacks - (to include Samaranch himself taking a Browning pistol out of the United States without permission - you need to fill out a Customs form, which he failed to do), that went with acquiring the games by competing cities, and thus term limits are now in place for IOC Presidents. They now serve one four-year term, and can be reelected to one more four year term - that’s it - much like the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution that spared us a third term of Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
Man oh man, am I ever glad to be rid of Samaranch! The fact that this guy left his dying wife alone in Spain (with his two children, I imagine) to go down to Sydney for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Games instead of being with her in her final hours, only to have her die without her husband of 40 or even 50 years there because he was in the air on his way back only goes to show that this man’s priorities were more than a little out of whack! I don’t know about you, but I would think that my lifetime sweetheart and companion would be a hell of a lot more important than my final Olympic Games, but then again, this Samaranch fellow is a classic control freak to the extreme.
It is the absence of these qualities (controlling, autocratic, dictatorial, imperious - or in other words, jerk!) that makes his successor - Jacques Rogge of Belgium (photo, right) such a breath of fresh air by comparison. Unlike Samaranch, Rogge is a former Olympic Athlete, having competed in three Olympic Games, and as such, has a better appreciation for what the athletes and yes, the spectators have to go through. He is an orthopedic surgeon by profession and unlike Samaranch, he is not at all ego-inflated or obsessed with who he is. When asked whether he should be addressed as either Your Excellency (as his predecessor was), Doctor (as he is an M.D.) or President, he simply replied, "My name is Jack!". How exciting! Now this is truly the dawn of a new day in the Olympic movement. Plus, I suspect he will not make (nor will we be subject to) what seemed to be the biennial yet always delusional "Godlike" declaration of "The Best Olympics Ever!" (except Atlanta, of course).
Perhaps with this new approach we will now be able to enact some meaningful changes and reforms that are badly needed within the Games. Nowhere was this more critically needed than in the pairs figure skating on Monday night when it was later revealed that Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier (pictured, left) were denied a Gold Medal because pressure had been brought to bear on the French judge to cast her vote in favor of the Russian pair, despite the fact the Russians had stumbled in their routine. Even the Russian skaters were surprised they had won the Gold. Sort of confirmed my long-held suspicions that Eastern Bloc judges had been rigging the vote for years, which it turns out they have been.
Suffice it to say, the firestorm of public protest and a subsequent investigation by the International Skating Union (ISU) determined that the fix had been in place for weeks and perhaps even months that if the French voted for the Russians in pairs, that the Russians would scratch the backs of the French when it cane to the Ice Dancing routines. On Friday, it was announced by both the ISU and the IOC that not only was the French judge in question (Marie Reine Le Gougne - pictured, right) being suspended and returning to France, but that other French judges were being looked into, as the squeeze was reportedly being put on them as well. With this matter having come to light, two things happened: (1) Gold Medals will be awarded to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier with the Russian skaters being allowed to keep theirs as they were not part of the scandal; and (2), the ISU is putting out the word for the sport - especially Ice Dancing to either clean up its act or it could well be scrapped from Olympic competition.
Rogge is to be commended for his quick and decisive leadership in handling this first Olympic crisis as swiftly and decisively as he did and for ensuring that the integrity was restored as quickly as it was. In doing so, he made great strides in helping restore luster to a sport that had been long tarnished by scandal and backroom deals. We can rest assure that had his predecessor still been at the helm, nobody would have won and everyone would have gone home with bad feelings. And that would not have been in keeping with the Olympic spirit.
As for the Independent Pravda whining about it not being a fair award? Keep three things in mind, boys and girls:
Fair is a four-letter word.
Remember who the original owner of Pravda was; - and
Independent Pravda is as much of an oxymoron as Rush Hour and Honest Politician.
Get my drift?
Timothy Rollins
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University of Utah
Randall Greene
Former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch
IOC President Jacques Rogge of Belgium
Jamie Sale and David Pelletier
Suspended French Judge Marie Reine Le Gougne (AP)