Samaranch defends receiving guns

The Olympics’ top official said Wednesday he did nothing wrong by accepting firearms worth more than $2,000 as gifts during Salt Lake City’s winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said he is routinely presented with gifts during his travels and didn’t want to insult Salt Lake by refusing the guns.

Samaranch also said he is not covered by IOC restriction on gifts because he doesn’t vote in the election of host cities.

He vowed to stay in office through the end of his term in 2001 and reiterated his promise to clean up the International Olympic Committee and expel any members found guilty of corruption.

So far, two rifles and a shotgun, all made by Browning Arms of Mountain Green, Utah, have been identified as going to Samaranch, and there also may have been a handgun given to him.

“Every time I travel I get gifts,” Samaranch said. “Of course Utah, Salt Lake City, is a state where guns are very popular. I have visited Salt Lake City twice and I got a gun both times. I took it to Switzerland.”

Refusing the guns “would have been a real insult,” he said.

“I see no problem whatsoever since the important gifts I get will be placed in the Olympic Museum,” he said at a news conference. “These weapons — these two guns — are in the Olympic museum.”

In a separate interview in the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, Samaranch said the guns were in his office in Lausanne.

“I do remember very clearly the inscription on the case: ‘To President Juan Antonio Samaranch on behalf of the population of Salt Lake City,” he told the newspaper. “These gifts were put down in a register, as is required by our internal rules.”

At the news conference, Samaranch denied that he had violated the IOC’s own rule prohibiting IOC members from accepting gifts with a value of more than $150.

“This limit is for the members who participate in the elections,” he said. “I do not take part in the voting and the elections.”

Some IOC members who did vote in the 1995 election which awarded the games to Salt Lake City were also allegedly presented with firearms during their visits.

Samaranch said this would be addressed in the IOC investigation into whether bribery played a part in Salt Lake’s winning bid. The inquiry is focusing on a “scholarship fund” that provided nearly $400,000 in scholarships to 13 people, including six relatives of IOC members.

In addition, some IOC members were provided with free medical care, including cosmetic surgery.

The IOC investigative panel is due to present its findings to the executive board on Jan. 24.

“Possibly we (will) have concrete cases of inappropriate behavior, and if this is proven true then we will propose the expulsion of these people,” Samaranch said.

Samaranch, who has been president of the IOC since 1980, said he would remain in office until his final term expires in 2001.

“Whatever happens, I will stay to the very last day of my mandate,” he said. “We will do whatever is necessary to clean up whatever must be cleaned up. … Life goes on, and the Olympic movement has been very important over a century and it will stay on the same level.”

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Tuesday that Samaranch received a shotgun and a rifle from the Salt Lake bid committee a month before Salt Lake won the right to host the 2002 Winter Games. On Wednesday, the paper said that another Browning rifle also went to Samaranch.

The IOC said its records showed Browning officials gave Samaranch a pistol and a rifle during a visit to his Lausanne office. Browning officials said Wednesday they located an invoice for a Browning “High Power” 9mm handgun that was sold to the Salt Lake bid committee in February 1991 for $391.86.

“What the bid committee did with it, I have no idea,” said Travis Hall, spokesman for Browning.

Associated Press