This time, it's final. World 800-meter champion Wilson Kipketer definitely will not run in the Atlanta Olympics.
Kipketer turned down a last-minute offer Saturday from the International Olympic Committee to compete for his native Kenya, a country he no longer represents."He wants to compete for Denmark," IOC sports director Gilbert Felli said. "He sees himself as Danish. Unfortunately, the Danish do not see him as Danish."
Kipketer has lived in Denmark since 1990 and won the 800 meters at last year's world championships as a member of the Danish team. However, he is not due to receive Danish citizenship until next year, and that means he is ineligible to run in the Olympics for Denmark.
"We've given him his chance," IOC director general Francois Carrard said. "We've done our best. We worked out a solution. He said, `No.' That's his call. That's his choice."
The Kenyan national Olympic committee has insisted all along that Kipketer could only compete for Kenya in Atlanta.
The Danes proposed this week that Kipketer be allowed to run under the Olympic flag, but the IOC rejected that solution.
The decision means the Centennial Games will miss one of the biggest stars in track and field. Kipketer would have been the gold medal favorite and a threat to break Sebastian Coe's 15-year-old world record of 1:41.73. Earlier this week, Kipketer ran the fastest 800 meters in 11 years (1:42.51).
International Amateur Athletic Federation president Primo Nebiolo criticized Danish officials for not speeding up citizenship procedures for Kipketer.
"When you have special cases, you can change some rules," he said. "In law, they say, `The law is the law.' But there are exceptions to the law."
Also Saturday, the IOC executive board heard reports from organizers of the 2000 summer games in Sydney and the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City. The IOC said it was satisfied with progress in both cities.
The main sticking point for Salt Lake remains completion of the long-delayed joint marketing agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee.