| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Mitt inflates Games role, paper says
Associated Press
BOSTON — Mitt Romney, who has made the much-vaunted rescue of the Winter Olympics the cornerstone of his gubernatorial campaign, had less to do with the Games' recovery than he suggests, according to the Boston Sunday Globe.
Dozens of interviews and Olympic budget records suggest that the Games' financial recovery was well under way by the time he stepped off the plane from Boston, the newspaper reported.
But Romney's right-hand man, Fraser Bullock, told the Deseret News Monday that the front-page article was "completely inaccurate." Bullock, the chief operating officer for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, said the Games were indeed in trouble.
"I'm the one that saw what Mitt did day in and day out, getting on planes, working seven days a week, and I knew how dire the financial situation was. What Mitt did was absolutely turn around the Games, and there's no question in my mind," Bullock said.
"I think without Mitt's leadership the Games would have happened, but they may have left a taxpayer bill, they would not have run nearly as well as they did and I don't think we would have shown as well to the world as we did. His leadership is all over the success of the Games."
Bullock said when Romney brought him on board in 1999, SLOC's budget showed a $400 million deficit. Organizers had not signed a sponsor for more than a year and had none lined up even before bribery was alleged in connection with Salt Lake's Olympic bid.
"You throw the scandal on top of that," Bullock said, "and obviously this is a situation in dire need of a turnaround."
The Boston newspaper stated, however, that contrary to Romney's assertion that the Games might not have happened at all in Salt Lake City had he not taken the reins, most of the financing was in place before he was hired, and there was never any question that the Olympics would be held in Utah.
The scandal "was troublesome, but the Games were never in jeopardy," said Mike Moran, spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee. "The Games were never in danger of being moved. Ever."
In interviews with the Globe, Romney downplayed the discrepancies, saying that only a few biased critics would conclude that the Games were in better shape financially than he claimed.
There's no question that the Olympics faced huge public embarrassment after the bribery scandal broke that revealed that local organizing committee members had lavished gifts and favors on International Olympic Committee delegates.
But institutions such as NBC had too much invested for the Games to fail. And by the time Romney was hired, financing for the Games was largely in place and large contracts were locked in.
A Globe analysis of the Olympics' budget showed that $1 billion of the Games' $1.268 billion budget — or 79 percent — was on the books when Romney arrived in February of 1999.
The Globe lists the following as discrepancies in Romney's account of the Games' recovery:
Romney and Bullock said shortly after their arrival that the Games would cost $56 million more than budgeted. But critics, who include a former high-ranking official of the organizing committee, said that staff had known of the financing problem for at least six months.
As recently as last week, Romney said he had been concerned about attracting the thousands of volunteers needed for the Games. But many Utah leaders say volunteers were never a concern. Bullock said the concern came after the scandal surfaced in late 1998.
"The taint of the scandal raised a question in our minds, 'Would people want to be associated with the Games?' "
Romney has suggested that his business knowledge attracted financing to the Games. Bullock, his deputy, said this week that Romney instituted a donor program that raised $30 million. But an organizing committee memo shows the plan was in the works for at least a year before Romney arrived.
Bullock told the Deseret News that no donors had contributed to the organizing committee before Romney contributed $1 million and started making calls. "People had talked about a donor program prior to Mitt's arrival, but it's a long way between talk and action," he said.
Longtime critic Ken Bullock, a member of the organizing committee board, told the Globe that Romney deserves praise for pulling off the Games without major problems but said Romney did not single-handedly save the Games from ruin.
"Does Mitt deserve credit? Absolutely," said Bullock, no relation to Fraser Bullock. "Did he do this and save the Games? Absolutely not. The Games are bigger than any one individual. He deserves credit, just not as much as he thinks he does."
Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche
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April 1, 2002
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