LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- What was billed by the International Olympic Committee as a reform extravaganza turned out to be little more than a warm-up act. Even worse, it's getting bad reviews.
Last week's extraordinary session of the IOC featured plenty of pledges that the excesses of Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games would never be allowed to happen again.To that end, six IOC members were expelled for helping themselves to some of the million-plus dollars given out by Salt Lake bidders in the form of cash payments, lavish gifts and trips, medical care and scholarships.
Changes were also made in the way the site of the 2006 Winter Games will be selected in June, with visits by IOC members to the six European cities bidding canceled.
But the long-term reform everyone seems to agree is needed within the IOC has been left to a newly created commission given the promising name of IOC 2000.
The commission's first report is expected in June, when the now 108 members of the IOC meet again in Seoul, Korea. By the end of the year, the commission's proposals are expected to be enacted.
Not so promising is that IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch put himself in charge of the commission, even though many blame the longtime leader for much of the mess.
Samaranch told reporters Saturday that he never considered appointing someone else to head the reform effort. Half of the approximately 20 members of the new commission will come from the IOC.
"This group must be presided over by the president of the International Olympic Committee," Samaranch said. "This is a problem of the Olympic movement, the IOC. It must be dealt with among us."
So much for any chance of significant reform, at least in some eyes. Most news stories from this lakeside city raised questions about the sincerity of the reform effort, something which has not gone unnoticed by the IOC.
"Other than having a public hanging out in the square, we couldn't have done anything else to satisfy the critics," grumbled Jim Easton, one of two IOC members from the United States.
"I don't know what they expect. It is our organization. We are trying to reform it, and we should be (the ones) doing it," Easton said. "That's a big step."
That's not how many observers see it. Some marvel that Samaranch is still at the top despite calls for his resignation by newspapers throughout the world.
A USA Today columnist compared the 86-2 vote of confidence given to the IOC leader this week in a much heralded secret ballot to an election in the former Soviet Union.
"It might sound like what the IOC did was momentous -- until you realize what the IOC did not do . . . Juan Antonio Samaranch escaped unscathed," Christine Brennan wrote in Friday's international edition.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who's pushing a congressional inquiry next month into the Olympics tax-exempt status, wondered why more reforms weren't enacted. "The time to study the problem has passed," McCain said last week.
IOC officials sound frustrated when they try to defend the actions taken in the special session. One staffer compared the reform effort to turning the Titanic around.
"We know we have to put up or shut up," the staffer said. But he said changing the course of the century-old institution with European sensibilities is going to take time.
Samaranch has long made his vision for the IOC clear -- an organization ruled from the top down with control over the hundreds of millions of dollars collected from Olympic broadcasters and sponsors.
That vision, of course, was challenged by the allegations that Salt Lake City tried to buy the 1995 election. Stories began surfacing late last year and led to at least a half-dozen investigations.
The IOC came up with its own list of transgressions by its members. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee's own board of ethics added names, while the U.S. Olympic Committee's special panel focused on criticizing the bid process.
The U.S. government has yet to weigh in. The FBI is leading an investigation on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service.
The barrage of bad news coming out of the investigations has spooked sponsors, especially the U.S. corporations that come up with most of the money.
While none of them have dropped out, most have had second thoughts about the tens of millions paid for the right to use the familiar Olympic symbol, the five multi-colored rings, in their advertising.
Last week's IOC meeting was intended to soothe the sponsors concerns, as well as to restore the general public's image of the IOC. Besides the much-touted votes, the IOC released financial documents.
Helping to get the message out that the IOC is now into "transparency" -- the word used here instead of openness -- is the high-powered public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton.
The IOC hired the U.S.-based firm shortly after the scandal surfaced to handle what Hill & Knowlton readily calls "crisis management." Their involvement is expected to last through at least the end of the year.
But even the PR firm isn't eager to take any credit for this week's performance, especially Samaranch's decision to put himself in charge of the reform effort.
"We didn't have anything to do with it either way," said Alan Elias, one of the key members of the team dispatched to Lausanne. "(Samaranch) doesn't make his decisions based on public relations."