By Karolos Grohmann
ATHENS, Oct 18 Reuters - Marc Hodler, the senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member who exposed the Salt Lake City corruption scandal, died on Wednesday in Switzerland, the IOC said.
Hodler, a Swiss, was 87.
He was the main whistleblower in the biggest corruption and bribery affair in the IOC’ s 110-year history, which involved several of its members and Salt Lake City officials.
The accusations centred on lavish gifts and other inducements to IOC members in return for their votes in the contest to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
These included cash payments, presents, scholarships and other benefits.
Salt Lake City crushed Switzerland’s Sion to win the nod.
Favourites Sion tried again four years later in 1999, a year after Hodler had made his accusations, only to lose out to Turin in the bidding for the 2006 Winter Games. Many at the time believed it was Hodler’s whistleblowing that cost Sion victory.
The IOC expresses its sadness at the passing of a member who dedicated so much to the Olympic movement. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Hodler's family,'' IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement which made no mention of the Salt Lake City affair. Hodler, a lawyer by profession who headed the International Ski Federation (FIS) from 1951-1998, had been on the IOC since 1963, making him the second longest-serving member of the body. He had served four terms on its executive board and had been a vice-president for four years between 1993 and 1997. On December 12, 1998, he stunned the world when, during a routine informal briefing at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, he made accusations of a systematic vote-buying scam in Salt Lake City's winning 2002 Games bid. Other IOC members nearby were shocked as they watched an angry Hodler, who was on the IOC's coordination commission for the Salt Lake City Games, unravel a network of kickbacks and catapult the IOC into its worst internal crisis since the Games boycotts of the 1970s and 1980s. A consequent investigation threw out six IOC members and another four resigned. Several top Salt Lake City Games officials were also forced to resign over the affair. The scandal led to tighter inspection visits to bidding cities for IOC members and tarnished the image of then President Juan Antonio Samaranch who retired a few years later. The IOC said Hodler had suffered a stroke three days ago and died in hospital in Berne. Adolf Ogi, a former President of Switzerland and of the Swiss Skiing association, praised Hodler's work for sport. I think he has done a lot for the development of skiing since the Second World War,’’ said Ogi, currently a United Nations ambassador.
``He was president of FIS for over 40 years which I think must be a world record and did a lot for the development of Alpine and Nordic skiing and also a lot for worldwide sport within the IOC,’’ he said.