New IOC President Jacques Rogge wasted no time during his first visit to Salt Lake City addressing the event still most closely associated with the 2002 Winter Games — the bid scandal.
"I believe we had a crisis. We recovered from the crisis. We had excellent Sydney Games. But to have excellent Salt Lake City Games is even more important, as the crisis originated around Salt Lake City.
"This has to be put behind (us). We are looking forward. We are looking to excellent Olympic Games," Rogge told reporters just minutes after arriving at the Salt Lake City International Airport Monday evening.
He brought it up again Tuesday morning with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee staff. Many of the nearly 700 employees at SLOC's downtown headquarters gathered to hear the new leader of the Switzerland-based IOC.
Rogge, dressed in shirtsleeves, told the cheering crowd that it's never easy to put on an Olympics and that Salt Lake City faces additional challenges because of the scandal. "We've had troubled times," he said. "Our perspective is that the crisis is over."
Rogge was part of the IOC's own investigative effort that led to the expulsion or resignation of 10 IOC members and sanctions against 10 more in connection with allegations Salt Lake bidders tried to buy the votes of IOC members with more than $1 million in cash and gifts.
Rogge also played a key role in the success of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. He served as the chairman of the IOC's coordination commission for what was the first Olympics after the scandal surfaced in late 1998.
Rogge was welcomed at the airport by SLOC President Mitt Romney, a group of reporters and a few curious onlookers who weren't sure who Rogge was but stopped to watch his arrival anyway.
Rogge was accompanied by the IOC's top administrative officials as well as by six IOC members, including the four from the United States.
Romney said the new president will "get to see our mountains, hopefully get to know something of the hospitality and warmth of our people" during the less than 24 hours he's spending in Salt Lake City.
"Only one day, I'm afraid, President Rogge, you will not get to have full justice of what it's like to be in Salt Lake City. But it's a great city, well-chosen for fabulous Games," Romney said.
Rogge's low-key approach to the job was evident when he was asked about his plans to stay at the athlete housing at the University of Utah during the Games.
"That's the place to be," the Olympic yachtsman-turned-surgeon from Belgium said, making it clear he's not expecting special treatment. "As I am not oversized, any normal bed will do."
Romney said SLOC has yet to decide exactly where in the "Olympic Village" Rogge will sleep. He said organizers have to make sure the IOC president can access his room easily, which could mean Rogge may be staying in a trailer rather than a dorm-style room. Or, possibly he'll end up in some of the former officers' housing turned over to the U. from Fort Douglas.
His venue tour Tuesday was scheduled to include a stop at the new campus housing as well as at the Olympic venues in and around Park City and the Delta Center, where figure skaters will compete.
Rogge spent most of Monday in Colorado Springs, meeting with officials and staff of the U.S. Olympic Committee and touring the training facilities there.
Monday evening, he attended a dinner in his honor hosted by Lt. Gov. Olene Walker at the governor's mansion. Both Gov. Mike Leavitt and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson were out of town.
Rogge has several issues involving IOC members to contend with, including a letter written by Canadian Dick Pound to Olympic sponsors that questions the IOC's commitment to reform.
Pound stepped down as the IOC's marketing chief after coming in third in the presidential race last month behind Rogge and South Korean Un Yong Kim, an IOC member who was sanctioned in the bid scandal.
Pound told the Deseret News Tuesday that he felt a responsibility to raise the issue with sponsors because "I was the one who promised all those people reform" during the scandal.
Rogge has yet to decide whether Pound will continue in his marketing role. The IOC boss also must decide whether to allow Anita DeFrantz, the highest-ranking IOC member from the United States, to continue to sit on the IOC Executive Board through the 2002 Games, as she has requested. He is not expected to make that decision while in Salt Lake.
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