Records Show Athlete Doping Hidden, Bid Kickbacks
Coverup, and Tax Dollars Claimed as Profits -- No Model for Future Clean
Olympics
By Robert S. Weiner, Robin Campbell-Bennett, and Sadiq Ahmed
As an American abroad at the London Olympics, Mitt Romney has just stated on worldwide television that there are "disconcerting" aspects to the current Games. Not quite endearing himself to the Brits, live from London on NBC, he criticized the security, the immigration control, and the British people's support.
Mr. Romney needs to look at his own Salt Lake City Games he chaired before his kettle calls the other pot black. It's not even a matter of archived records that are now missing. There were issues under the radar but with public records that were no model for London 2012 and future Games.
Mitt Romney wrote a 2004 memoir, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the
Olympic Games. In his victory speech
after the Florida primary, Romney said, "My leadership helped save the
Olympics from scandal."
Romney's Salt Lake City Olympic "success" omits a cover-up of athletes' drugs usage and blood doping, a bid scandal cover-up, and crediting tax dollars as profits.
In the Games' waning hours, a
housekeeper found blood transfusion equipment and blood packets where the
Austrian ski team stayed. She alerted the Wasatch County Sheriff. On March 1, 2002 in a column, "More Curious
Material in Skiing's Closet," the New
York Times' George Vecsey asserted, "I
can hardly wait for the explanation." Austrian
officials said coach Walter Mayer applied a "paramedical method" to
prevent athletes from catching "colds and flu." It was an outright lie. The team was injecting red blood cells to increase
endurance performance. The IOC subsequently
banned Mayer from Olympics through 2010 for the illegal transfusions.
Romney did not launch an
investigation. In addition, there were six busts from other countries where doping
was only revealed the last day, and two gold medalists (Russian and Spanish
skiers) were expelled, with little fanfare against the gloss of the Closing
Ceremonies. (In London, nine busts and
expulsions have already been announced.)
WADA later took the Austrian incident very seriously. During the run-up to the 2006 Italy Games, local police, tipped off by WADA, raided residences of Austria's biathlon and cross-country ski teams. The banned coach was still with the team. Said Richard Pound, World Anti-Doping Association President and IOC Vice President, "The gloves are off now. Public authorities and sports authorities are prepared to work together." That's what Romney was supposed to achieve in Salt Lake City.
Equally troublesome, Romney awarded
a $20 million sponsorship to Provo, Utah-based Nu Skin, allowing subsidiary
Pharmanex to distribute nutritional supplements to all Salt Lake Olympians. WADA
was advising athletes not to take supplements, citing concerns they may be tainted. Pound said, "I'd be reluctant to have a
sponsorship agreement while the industry is fighting regulation and offering
disinformation." Regardless, Nu Skin was
featured all over TV for the Games.
Support has its rewards: Nu Skin Founder Steven Lund put $2 million into Romney Super PAC Restore our Future last year, according to campaign disclosure forms reported by Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and the Washington Post among others.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).