Report assails Nagano over bid

A new report on Nagano's successful bid for the 1998 Winter Games, ordered by the regional government, found that an "illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality" was handed out by the Japanese city.

The Nagano Prefecture Investigation Group Report comes more than 14 years after the International Olympic Committee chose Nagano over Salt Lake City in a close vote, even though the Utah capital was widely seen as better qualified to host the Olympics.

Salt Lake City went on to be awarded the 2002 Winter Games but sparked a worldwide scandal eight years ago when Utah bidders were accused of buying IOC votes with more than $1 million in cash, gifts, trips, scholarships and even medical treatments.

There were always similar concerns about Nagano's bid but no proof because records had been burned. Now, according to an abstract in English of the investigation group's report, dated Nov. 22, 2005, new problems with the Nagano bid have been documented, including:

• Nearly $544,000 (all dollar figures are calculated at current conversion rates from Japanese yen) in souvenirs were given out during the bid, an average of about $5,700 per IOC member. The gift limit at the time under IOC rules was $200.

• More than $4.4 million was spent to entertain IOC members during the bid, an average of about $46,500 per IOC member.

• There was no accounting of how approximately $776,000 was used during the 1991 IOC session in Birmingham, England, where the host city for the 1998 Winter Games was selected.

One government official told the investigation group that the money was used for "lobbying and promotional activities, and simply there were no receipts. Therefore, a phrase like 'unaccounted for' is not right, because it sounds like somebody stole it."

• The total price tag for promoting Nagano's Olympic bid was more than $24 million, almost five times as much as Salt Lake City's bid for the 1998 Winter Games reportedly cost.

• The previously revealed destruction of 90 boxes of bid records — possibly, the report stated, at the request of the then-prefectural governor — "should still be viewed as a criminal act," because the records were supposed to have been maintained for five years.

A bid committee member told the investigation group that the records "probably included a great deal of IOC-related secrets and personal information — it might lead to trouble if the documents were kept."

The investigation group concluded the reason was because during the bid "illegitimate and excessive levels of hospitality were offered" that had to be hidden from Nagano citizens.

• A signature was forged on a document required to take a ceremonial sword, reportedly valued at $13,000, out of Japan to be presented to then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The report suggests whoever forged the signature might be guilty of a criminal offense.

The report appears to confirm the suspicions many had after Salt Lake City became the subject of local, national and international investigations. Rumors had started shortly after Nagano's victory about IOC members having been provided with geishas and expensive artwork and electronics.

One story frequently told was that the Nagano bid committee reportedly gave members of the IOC expensive video cameras just before the IOC vote, while Salt Lake City's bid team handed out disposable cameras.

Among the critics was Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who blamed Salt Lake City's loss to Nagano on "corruption," later claiming "Japanese leadership just basically bought the Olympics. . . . We were swindled out of it."

But soon after the Salt Lake scandal surfaced, it was revealed that Nagano had set fire to its bid records. That appeared to make it impossible to verify allegations that the Japanese city violated IOC rules.