U.S. Olympics committee drops doping probe to secure Salt Lake City hosting bid

(NEW YORK) — As the 2024 Summer Olympics officially kick off in Paris on July 26, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan joined Brad Mielke on Thursday’s episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ flagship daily news podcast, and dived into the concession made by the U.S. Olympic Committee and officials from Salt Lake City, Utah, in order to secure the city’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Games, which the city also hosted in 2002.

START HERE: But as far as the U.S. is concerned, the biggest Olympics story of the day did not have anything to do with Paris at all. In the wee hours of the morning, Salt Lake City, Utah, learned it will once again be the host of the Winter Olympics, in 2034. That was the sound of people cheering this news at 4 a.m. local time in Salt Lake City. They’ve got a decade to get even more amped up.

But the International Olympic Committee announced a rule here that has already created a really weird vibe. Let’s take you to Paris right now, where Christine Brennan is covering the Games. She’s a sports columnist with USA Today…she’s also an ABC News contributor. Christine, can you just explain what’s going on with the future Olympics?

BRENNAN: Brad, this was crazy. Salt Lake City is really the only city that wants to host the Winter Olympics. It’s getting harder and harder for the International Olympic Committee to find cities and countries that are interested. It costs so much money, it’s so difficult. Obviously, climate change, you know, all the things that we know about what it is with an Olympics.

So you get a city like Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Olympics and did a fabulous job, great Olympic Games. And this was a slam dunk. Everyone just expected it would just go without any issue, any problem. Instead, several International Olympic Committee members proposed an amendment. And they want the U.S. to drop the FBI investigation into the Chinese doping controversy.

START HERE: Yeah, I think the language was like the U.S. cannot “undermine the world anti-doping agency,” they can’t undermine WADA, which you’d think like, why would they do that? And yet it apparently all goes back to this federal investigation of Chinese athletes. Can you brush us up on that?

BRENNAN: We just found out about it. The New York Times and a German public broadcasting company exposed it a few months ago. Chinese swimmers, the 23 swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics. But it was never revealed, no transparency. They went to compete in Tokyo and three, three golds. They won three golds. And 11 of them, of the 23, are competing here. And so all these athletes that competed in Tokyo, including Katie Ledecky in a relay, came in second to people who had tested positive a few months earlier. That outrages the United States.

Because of a law known as the Rodchenkov Act, it allows the U.S., in this case, the FBI, to go after officials or others in a criminal manner and criminal prosecution, who were involved in this doping scheme. They’ve already served a subpoena to the World Aquatics executive director. Again that’s swimming, to try to figure out this doping scheme, what happened and why the world didn’t know about it.

START HERE: OK, so this is like an ultimatum. You can have the Games if you stop investigating this. What did U.S. organizers do?

BRENNAN: Stunningly and amazingly, just I cannot believe it, the Salt Lake City officials and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee caved.

START HERE: Wow.

BRENNAN: They caved. And so while you had Katie Ledecky an hour and a half earlier in a press conference talking about the importance of clean sport. One floor and 90 minutes later, you had these officials caving in to demands, as from the International Olympic Committee, for them to get rid of the investigation into something that Katie Ledecky — Michael Phelps just testified in front of Congress — that they care so much about.

START HERE: Right and it’s interesting, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sounded pretty furious about this, but they sound more upset with the IOC for pressuring Salt Lake City. Local organizers though, Christine, sounded upbeat about this. You had Utah Gov. Spencer Cox yesterday defending all this. But I guess I’m just confused as to why the organizers made this concession? Like if the U.S. has been so public about wanting to go after these people and protecting their own athletes, frankly?

BRENNAN: Because they were scared they were going to lose the Olympics otherwise. I cannot believe that Salt Lake officials and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee didn’t just say no.

Now, what’s going to end up happening here, I believe, is that it will be a rude awakening, because I cannot imagine Congress taking too kindly to what the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake officials just did. And I’ve got to believe that if any of these officials show up and deserve to be arrested, they’re going to get a knock on the door and they’re going to be arrested. And so they may be the most shocked people on the planet when they thought they got this deal from Salt Lake City.

So it’s truly a mess. It’s stunning. It’s exactly the way that they did not want to kick off the Olympic week. But it is something worthy of all of our attention.

I think for a lot of people, they remember Salt Lake City and they remember the bribery scandal from 1999. Once again, Salt Lake City officials are involved again in a major controversy of their own making. This is supposed to be such a positive thing, and now they’re mired right back in controversy, just as they were at the beginning of the century.

START HERE: Wow. Unbelievable. And Christine Brennan will, of course, have a column in USA Today that’s out actually right now this morning. Thank you so much, Christine.

BRENNAN: Brad, thank you.