THE politics of the Olympics spilled into the streets yesterday when Julie Pound, the wife of the International Olympic Committee vice president Dick Pound, was arrested by Atlanta police after allegedly kneeing a female traffic policeman in the groin.

Pound has been tipped to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch should the IOC president lose his grip on power and the latest incident will be causing private glee in the Samaranch camp.

Mrs Pound was arrested at around 1 a.m. as she and her husband returned to their hotel in central Atlanta. A police officer asked them to remain on the pavement but the pair continued walking and, according to the police report, Mrs Pound told the officer, Leanne Browning to "fuck off". Browning, followed the couple to the kerb and says that she was sworn at again.

"Then, to prevent her from leaving the scene, I grabbed her arm and told her she was under arrest," says the arrest report. "She called me a fucking bitch and kneed me in the groin," the report continues. A struggle ensued and, says Browning, Mrs Pound started screaming "Help, this officer is brutalising me."

Ia the section of the report which refers to the sobriety of a suspect, Ms Browning has written "under the influence".

Mrs Pound was released into the custody of A D Frazier, a senior member of Atlanta's organising committee and will appear in court on August 27th. However Mr Pound, who is second only to Samaranch in terms of IOC power and is credited with vastly increasing Olympic TV revenues in his role as chief negotiator, denies the incident occurred as the officer reports.

"The report is highly inaccurate and self serving," he said. "We were walking along peacefully and this is the last thing we expected."