Organisers in Atlanta come in for criticism

OLYMPIC GAMES

International sports federations yesterday criticised Atlanta Olympic officials for failing to provide proper test facilities before next year's Games.

The Amateur International Boxing Association and Judo representatives both gave the Atlanta delegation a hostile reception when they presented their regular progress report to the International Olympic Committee in Monaco.

Other federations were angry at officials and judges being housed on university campuses rather than in hotels, and that they were not receiving a fair share of tickets to events and ceremonies.

But Atlanta's sports director, Dave Maggard, claimed there would be extensive testing of Olympic venues before the Games.

"Twenty-three sports will have them and only two or three will not," he said. "It's not a major issue for us. The main thing is to test our staff, volunteers and organisation. We will have more than enough test events to do this."

Billy Payne, president of Atlanta's organising committee, said the problem of finding accommodation for 1,000 sports officials and judges would be re-examined, but no easy solution was in sight as there were not enough available hotel beds.

"It's a difficult issue for us," he admitted. "We may have underestimated here, which is something we rarely do. Everybody wants to come to the Centenary Games. It's over whelming."

Atlanta was also criticised for making wholesale changes after winning the bid, in particular for switching sports to new venues.

But Payne added: "My advice was that there are dramatic, changing circumstances for both sides in the seven years between winning the bid and staging the Games.

"The changes we have made have all been improvements over our original bid. I told them to come to the Games and to prepare not to be disappointed."

The International Olympic Committee will pre-select candidates if it receives too many bids for the 2004 Games, the IOC director general Franois Carrard said at a meeting in Monaco yesterday.

"The IOC envisages using the same procedure as for the 2002 Winter Games," he added. A shortlist of four was drawn up after nine cities bid for the 2002 Winter Games and a final decision will be taken at Budapest in June.

Carrard said 13 cities had expressed an interest in applying for the 2004 Games. Peking, which lost the 2000 Games to Sydney by just two votes, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, San Juan, Istanbul, Rome, Seville, Stockholm, Osaka, Boston and the French cities Lille and Lyons are all keen to stage the event.

They have until January to make a formal bid which will be examined by the IOC at its 1997 session in Lausanne.

At the same meeting the executive board of the IOC granted provisional recognition to the International Dance Sports Federation, the governing body of ballroom dancing. Also recognized by the IOC was the international surfing association.

Carrard said that ballroom dancing is a perfectly legitimate sporting activity which deserves to be considered for possible inclusion on the Summer Olympic program. And why not.