Election puts IOC back in hot seat

The elevation of an International Olympic Committee member to vice president even though his son has been charged in connection with the Salt Lake bid scandal is raising new questions about whether the organization has really reformed.

Un Yong Kim of South Korea was voted an IOC vice president last week. His son, John, is in a Bulgarian jail awaiting extradition to the United States on charges stemming from what federal investigators have labeled a "sham job" paid for by the Salt Lake Bid Committee.

Kim's election at the IOC's annual session, held in Prague, Czech Republic, has some observers wondering about the organization's commitment to ethical reforms made after the Salt Lake scandal.

It also has people talking once again about the bribery scandal instead of the stunning success of the 2002 Winter Games, something sure to send a shudder through Utahns who thought the days of being called "Salt Lake Seedy" were long past.

The vote for Kim came after another IOC member, the heir to the Dutch throne, told the session that the lessons learned from the scandal shouldn't be forgotten. "The seeds have just been sown and still need our nurturing," Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, said.

Longtime Olympic observer Chicago Tribune columnist Philip Hersh wrote that choosing a man implicated in the corruption to serve as one of the IOC's four vice presidents proves "the changes may need more time to take root."

A report from CanWest News Service in the Calgary Herald quoted the director of the Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario as saying Kim's election "flies in the face of the reforms the IOC has been trying to put in place.

"It tells us the old regime is still alive," the director, Kevin Wamsley, said, citing the politically driven leadership of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. "Reform-minded individuals will probably be disappointed in this new era."

Kim defeated a candidate reportedly supported by Samaranch's successor, Jacques Rogge. Gerhard Heiberg of Norway, described as "Mr. Clean," lost to Kim by a vote of 55-44. Hersh said in his column that Rogge tried in vain to talk Kim out of running.

Kim ran against Rogge in the 2001 presidential race, losing after the Deseret News and other news outlets reported he would give IOC members a "minimum" of $50,000 a year if elected.