Corruption in the sports business

Corruption around the International Olympics Committee appears to be even worse than what the rumors indicated. Everything indicates that IOC members were bribed and that they willingly took advantage of their powerful positions. But the scandal is not only a consequence of dishonor at the level of chairman Samaranch or his members. The problem will not disappear with his eventual departure. It goes deeper than that.

Athletics is not just politics, it's also big business -- with an enormous potential for growth. In an international economy where the entertainment industry is one of the biggest sectors, elite athletics is a valuable product to sell. Commercialism's power is unbelievably strong. Behind a centimeter longer jump (or) a tenth-of-a-second shorter time there are often advanced laboratories, years-long research projects and an infinite number of training hours that somebody has to pay for.

The making of athletics into a business is not a wrong thing in itself. But the current confusion between idealistic and commercial forces, and between national and international ideas, risks the destruction of a fine summer pleasure. And a winter pleasure also.

-- Expressen, Stockholm, Sweden