A Finnish member of the International Olympic Committee, Pirjo Haeggman, has resigned, the first to step down in the widening bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Haeggman's former husband, Bjarne, reportedly worked briefly for the Salt Lake bid committee and for 20 months in an Ontario government job initiated by the Toronto committee bidding for the 1996 summer Games. She claimed she had no idea he was breaking any rules.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Toronto committee trying to win the city the 1996 summer Olympics was paying rent for Haeggman and her former husband while the couple lived in Canada during the early 1990s.
Paul Henderson, chairman of the Toronto committee at the time, said yesterday that the deal had been approved by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
"She and I cleared it through Samaranch and the Finn Olympic Committee," he said.
Haeggman is only the second IOC member to resign over a scandal. Robert Helmick stepped down in 1991 as an IOC member and president of the US Olympic Committee amid allegations of conflict of interest in contracts with sports associations.
Haeggman was one of nine members facing expulsion after an investigation led by Richard Pound implicated her in receiving favours from Salt Lake City. Pound has written to 12 other members allegedly linked to the affair.
According to a German specialist sports magazine the 12 are Kim Un Yong (South Korea), Vitaly Smirnov (Russia), Augustin Carlos Arroyo (Ecuador), Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi (Libya), Jean-Claude Ganga (Congo), Zein El Abdin Abdel Gadir (Sudan), Anton Geesink (Holland), Louis Guirandou-N'Diaye (Ivory Coast), Lamine Keita (Mali), Charles Nderitu Mukora (Kenya), Sergio Santander Fantini (Chile), David Sikhulumi Sibandze (Swaziland).
The special investigating committee is to report its findings to the IOC Executive Board at the weekend. The 10-member board will then make recommendations to an extraordinary session of the members on March 17th-18th.
Haeggman was last week removed from the organising committee of Helsinki's joint bid with Lahti and Lillehammer to stage the 2006 Winter Games after the claims emerged.
A runner in the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics, Haeggman was 12 times the Finnish champion at 100 and 400 metres.
The IOC President issued a brief statement yesterday, thanking Haeggman for her services to the Olympic movement.
Pressure on the IOC to act was stepped up yesterday when Australian Olympics officials sent the organisation a strongly-worded message demanding that they dismiss corrupt IOC delegates.
Among other measures, the Australian officials want the entire bidding process for host cities overhauled.
Reports in Japan yesterday also said that its Olympic city of Nagano gave IOC supremo Samaranch a gift of a £12,000 sword a month before being chosen as host for the 1998 Winter Games.
And at least two International Olympic Committee members accepted offers of prostitutes from a bid committee trying to land the 1992 Games for Amsterdam, according to a member of an Olympic promotional group.
Prince Frederic von Saxe-Lauenberg, a member of the Pierre de Coubertin International Committee, said: "I was there and saw it, IOC members being offered women and two accepting." He further claimed that IOC members were given video cassette recorders and their wives had been offered diamond broaches.
