PRAGUE, 6 July 2003 — South Korea’s Kim Un-yong was elected vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday, four years after receiving a severe warning in the Salt Lake City bid scandal.
Kim, who also served as vice-president under former leader Juan Antonio Samaranch and lost a bid for the top job two years ago, beat Norway’s Gerhard Heiberg in a secret ballot at the IOC Session to secure one of four vice-president’s spots on the policy-making executive board.
The post became available when Australia’s Kevan Gosper stepped down. Olympic insiders say Heiberg had been IOC President Jacques Rogge’s first choice for the job. Heiberg was later voted onto the 15-member board. Kim’s election comes at a time when the IOC is trying to reform itself and project a more open and transparent image. Rogge, who beat Kim into second place for the IOC’s presidency in 2001, responded coolly when asked what sort of message the appointment of Kim sent out.
“Mr Kim was eligible, he has been elected democratically, and he will serve on the executive board like the other 14 IOC members,” Rogge said. The South Korean, an IOC member since 1986, was handed a “most serious warning” by the ad-hoc commission investigating the Salt Lake City bribery scandal in 1998 and 1999. The commission found a Salt Lake bid official had arranged to pay at least part of the salary of Kim’s son John when he worked for a US company.
Kim denied all knowledge of the arrangement and the commission said in a report that it could not prove otherwise. John Kim was detained by authorities in Bulgaria in May on an outstanding warrant from the United States relating to immigration law violations, charges also connected with the Salt Lake City bid scandal.
Two Brazil Cities to
Compete for 2012 Games
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s two biggest cities have taken their longtime rivalry to Olympic heights, but the mayors of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are exchanging low blows in the clash to host the 2012 Summer Games. The Brazilian Olympic Committee will choose tomorrow the candidate from Latin America’s largest country that will be considered by the international body along with Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris.
Both Rio and Sao Paulo have severe problems with street crime, and murder rates are among the highest in the world, but crime experts brushed off such concerns.
