International Olympic Committee

Olympics Samaranch warns Athens about status of 2004 Games IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch warned yesterday that the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens will be in danger unless Greek organizers make "drastic changes" by the end of this year. In an extraordinary public broadside, Samaranch said Greece -- birthplace of the Olympics -- had failed to deliver and faced major problems and delays in preparations for the games. Samaranch said it was the worst organizational crisis faced by an Olympic city in his 20 years as president of the International Olympic Committee.

Imagine a nautical parade of flags in the Inner Harbor as part of the Olympic opening ceremonies, Cal Ripken lighting an Olympic flame atop Federal Hill, giant video screens showing the parade of athletes on the National Mall in Washington. Imagine America's newest Mary Lou Retton winning gold medals in gymnastics at the new Baltimore Arena. The electricity of gold-medal soccer matches at PSINet Stadium. The emotion of a U.S.-Cuba gold-medal baseball game at Camden Yards. When first proposed, the idea of a two-city bid for the 2012 Olympics seemed impractical.

THE International Olympic Committee passed all the reforms that anyone could expect, and asks to be forgiven all sins.Not so fast.The verdict should be: So far, so good.Credibility requires probationary approval followed by a hard look at implementation.The sins are several: Corruption, soliciting pay-offs for awarding games to cities bidding to host them. Arrogance, conducting affairs in secret as a private club that is nobody else's business. Indifference, both to world opinion and to scientific advances on the doping front.

Q. How many genes does it take to change a light bulb?A. One. The same as for a heavy bulb.The International Olympic Committee cleaned up its act. Just ask it.While we are giving the Canal Zone back to Panama, why not go the whole way and give Panama back to Colombia?The first task for MTA is to make Light Rail service as good as it was before they added the BWI and Penn Station stops.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Members of the International Olympic Committee compliantly fell into line yesterday with the insistence of Juan Antonio Samaranch that they begin instituting legitimate, if incremental, reform in an attempt to restore credibility to the damaged Olympic movement.The 93 voting delegates unanimously voted to end their unlimited memberships and to restrict future presidents to a maximum of 12 years in office, as well as to select 15 active athletes to the IOC. The session will continue today with a vote on the contentious issue of whether to allow delegates to visit cities bidding on the Winter and Summer Games.

LONDON -- The Olympics have survived boycotts, world wars, terrorist murders and a fleeting association with Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.But can they overcome greed?That's the question facing the Games' guardians as they gather for watershed meetings next week at their opulent headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.The International Olympic Committee is under fire over the bribery scandal in the awarding the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. With about a quarter of the committee's membership implicated in the vote-buying affair, the IOC faces a make-or-break week as it begins the process of reform.

INTEGRITY, rectitude and fair competition must define the Olympic Games. Faced with mounting evidence of rampant bribery in the selection of host cities, the self-perpetuating International Olympic Committee must clean up its act.The charges: Salt Lake City paid IOC members to vote for it to host the 2002 Winter Games, after Nagano, Japan, did the same for the 1998 Winter Games. So far, six IOC members have been expelled, four have resigned and three more face expulsion at the group's March 17-18 meeting.

GIVEN the recent history of the Olympics, it is not unreasonable to ask why any city would wish to host the Games. Yet this is precisely what the Baltimore/Washington area wishes to do in 2012.Numerous cities have found that playing host to the Olympics is fraught with danger. The 1976 Games landed Montreal with a $1 billion debt, which took 22 years to pay off. (The final payment was made last month.)The 1984 games in Los Angeles may have turned a profit, but not before they became embroiled in Cold War politics and were compromised by a powerful Soviet-led boycott.

Olympic silver medalist Jair Lynch and Morgan State University President Earl Richardson are among 10 community and business leaders named to the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition by those cities' mayors.Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke named five people to that board, which is working to bring the 2012 Olympics to the region:Richardson, John A. Moag Jr., chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority; Ioanna Morfessis, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Alliance; Ron Shapiro, a Baltimore attorney, and William L. Jews, president and chief executive officer of CareFirst, which was formed by the combination of the Maryland and District of Columbia Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.

Six years behind the NHL, 12 years behind the NBA, and that's if Major League Baseball gets its act together in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics.The players want it to happen. The International Olympic Committee wants it to happen. The sport needs it to happen.Imagine Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey playing for the United States. Pedro and Ramon Martinez pitching for the Dominican. The Alomar brothers, Bernie Williams, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez slugging for Puerto Rico.Far-fetched? Not anymore.