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Kim, Pound, Accuse Samaranch Of Interfering In Presidency Race

South Korea’s Kim Un-yong, and Canada’s Dick Pound, have accused former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch of interfering in the IOC presidency campaign.

Interviewed by South Korea’s national news agency, Yonhap, Kim said “Samaranch systematically blocked my campaign. On the eve of the election he leaked a groundless allegation against me”.

Kim added, “I felt helpless because Samaranch lopsidedly supported Rogge to make him president. Samaranch called IOC members, who were friendly to me, to his room yesterday and today to persuade them not to support me. It is quite clear that Samaranch will try to administer IOC affairs from behind the veil. He backed Rogge in order to continue to control the IOC even after stepping down as president”.

Kim said his campaign was hurt when Beijing won the 2008 Games last Friday and “European IOC members spread an opinion that Asia should not walk away with two victories”.

Pound shares Kim’s belief of Samaranch’s interference, but as to comments that Samaranch will still control the IOC, he said, “there’s an expression that says there’s nothing as past as a past president”.

Asked by reporters if he thought Samaranch had worked secretly for Rogge, Pound said, “yes, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever”. But he said he held no grudges against Samaranch.

“I don’t think it’s betrayal”, he said. “I might have hoped that he would have seen me as his successor”. He said he was “a little disappointed” that Samaranch campaigned for Rogge after he had worked hard to extricate the IOC from drug and corruption scandals that Samaranch had been unable to control.

In an analysis of the IOC election, the Yonhap agency said that with Kim’s defeat, “the IOC’s eurocentric and white-dominated fortress proved to be impregnable”. And South Korea’s mass-circulation Dong A Ilbo newspaper said in a commentary that Kim lost the election because he could not overcome “the hurdles of racism and Samaranch”.

The daily Chosun Ilbo said Kim failed because he could not demolish the “wall of racism”.

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