IOC president Jacques Rogge said security will be discussed by the ruling IOC executive board next week in Lausanne, and Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney will report to the board by videoconference from Utah.
Rogge said, “the answer might be nothing has to change. The answer might be some things have to change. We will listen to our American friends”.
Rogge declined to specify what areas of security would be examined. “This is a period of mourning and respect. This is not the time to discuss specifics. We have to show respect for the tragedy”, he said.
Security has been a prime concern for the IOC since the terrorist assault at the 1972 Munich Olympics claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and six others. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, one person was killed and more than 100 injured when a pipe bomb exploded in Centennial Park.
Rogge said, “we have always put that as the No. 1 priority. We’ve always been careful in bringing one of the experts from previous Games to the organizers”.
Rogge noted that the security chiefs from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 2000 Sydney Games were acting as advisers for Salt Lake City and other future Games.
IOC member Dick Pound said he didn’t expect drastic security changes for Salt Lake City. “Olympic security has been pretty thorough since Munich. There is a very high degree of cooperation among security forces. My guess is (the attacks) will probably lead to a more thorough background check on employees, service providers and so on. It’s a small enough community that something strange is more likely to be noticed than somewhere else”.
While the Olympics can provide an ideal stage for global publicity, attacking the Salt Lake Games would be counter-productive for terrorists, said Pound. “Most of these groups depend on some kind of acceptance or toleration by other countries that harbor them. If you do something drastic at the Olympics, like at the opening ceremony, you alienate everybody. I think that decreases the likelihood that something would happen in Salt Lake, over and above all the additional security”.
