It's the politics, stupid!
Yes, we DO need the IOC to help get this mess cleaned up...a little history...
The bidding scandal was a disgrace, and as a result, in April 1999, Rep. Henry Waxman introduced legislation that would render it illegal for an American entity (person, corporation, etc., etc.) to contribute to the IOC unless the IOC enacted reforms. Since American monies make up well over 50% of the IOC's budget, there is no way that the IOC would ever risk losing the American cash cow...and lo and behold, reforms were enacted...and Rep. Waxman's legislation never made it onto the Congressional floor for debate.
Those reforms included: (1) A transparent bidding process (IOC members on the bid committee are prohibited from going to candidate cities is part of this proces, among other things); (2) term limits for officers (elected to an eight-year term which is renewable once for an additional four years, making for a maximum of 12 years); and (3) mandatory retirement age for IOC members (those elected to the IOC in 1965 or before were still permitted to serve for life...there are only three that meet this criteria and they are all old; those elected 1966-1998 must retire at the age of 80...Speedy falls into this group and he will be around until 2018 if he lives that long or nothing happens to him; those elected in 1999 and thereafter must retire at the age of 70).
None of us foresaw the "mobster" that was arrested in Italy last July...and he is now awaiting extradition to the US for trial (he is appealing, but I do not think his appeal will be granted). Add to this mix the fact that Worlds is in Washington DC at the end of March this year. I would not be at all surprised if the timing of the trial coincides very closely with Worlds, to allow for the court to subpoena any of the foreign ISU powers-that-be that will be in the US for Worlds (I wonder how many of them are going to conveniently stay home this year). I cannot help but wonder what any of them would have to say when under oath. That in and of itself is going to be some sideshow:rollin: :rollin:
In all fairness to the IOC, I do not believe for one New York minute that any of them believe that a new scoring system is going to solve the ethical problems...we know it won't. By the time their 115th Session takes place in Prague this July 2-7, the new scoring system would have demonstrated for itself that it does not address the ethical issues in any way whatsoever and the "mobster" trial would have no doubt taken place and perhaps, even a verdict with a sentence.
By waiting until their 115th Session in Prague this coming July, the IOC will then be able to truly say that the ISU was given the opportunity to clean up its ethical mess and failed to do so. Therefore, the IOC will be iin a much better position to demand that all federations enact and enforce ethical standards for officials to prevent another debacle like what happened in Salt Lake from ever happening again in order to remain Olympic eligible. By taking this approach, the IOC will not be singling the ISU out. Although the IOC does permit and expect international federations to enact and enforce its own rules, it still reserves the right to demand that those rules meet given criteria. Everyone knows that losing Olympic eligibility would result in the loss of substantial monies for any federation, almost certainly enough to result in bankruptcy.
We can help by keeping the heat on the IOC. How? If everyone wrote Dr. Rogge and the IOC (I do not have an e-mail address, but snail-mail and the fax will get the job done...that information is on the IOC websitei) and flooded his mailbox and the IOC fax machine before the 115th Session in early July, the impact would be tremendous. Right now things are so bad that there is absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this.
Also, before any "naysayers" out there ridicule this idea, I challenge you to come up with a better one that we can do to effectively solve this problem.
urple;font-family:helvetica;font-size:small;">I don't think Uncle Dick gives a YOU KNOW WHAT about what anyone else thinks of him--and he is not losing sleep at night worrying about being blackballed. Blackballed from WHAT?</span>
