Olympic boss Juan Antonio Samaranch faced mounting pressure to resign yesterday as newspaper editorials worldwide called on him to quit in the wake of the exploding bribery scandal.
The fallout of fury and frustration over the alleged “votes for cash” imbroglio escalated.
Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury left his Olympic gold medal on a table at a news conference in Toronto, exclaiming in disgust that it had lost its meaning because of the bribery brouhaha.
“This is an Olympic gold medal, if anyone wants it,” said the athlete, who won the 100-meter backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
“Juan Antonio Samaranch should resign,” Tewksbury said. “The entire IOC needs to be restructured. I’m here to defend Olympism, to defend the movement, not to defend the IOC.”
On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee suspended six of its 115 members after an investigation into claims Salt Lake City offered bribes during its successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Three other members have resigned and three more face additional probes.
“The IOC has been exposed as a pig sty,” Bild, Germany’s largest-selling daily, said in its editorial.
“Six members sold their votes for hard dollars and hot nights of passion. And Juan Antonio Samaranch says he wants to pursue further suspects,” it said.
“The only way to save the Games is for a new, strong president to take over and really clean it up,” Bild concluded.
In Britain, a Daily Telegraph editorial declared “The Olympic ideal is a laughingstock.
“Confidence in the institution has gone. It will not return until Samaranch and his crony culture have gone and the IOC has been reduced and overhauled.”
Samaranch, who has pledged a cleanup, said he would resign if he loses a vote of confidence at a special IOC session in March.
Meanwhile, Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli demanded a new vote on the 2004 Summer Games, which were awarded in 1997 to Athens over Rome.
“I’m very angry,” he said. “A panel of IOC experts and athletes gave Rome the No. 1 spot on the list of candidates. Until 24 hours before the vote, we were in the lead. And then – who knows what happened?”