A new book suggests Chinese sports officials made a trade with European members of the International Olympic Committee during their lobbying for the 2008 Olympics, promising to back Belgian Jacques Rogge's bid to head the IOC in return for European support for Beijing.
Yuan Weimin, retired sports minister and president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, describes the alleged arrangements surrounding Beijing's Olympic bid in 2001 in his recently published memoir, Yuan Weimin and the Sports World.
European members of the IOC verbally agreed to support Beijing for the 2008 Games in exchange for Chinese support for Rogge, who was head of the European Olympic Committees at the time. Canada would have been hurt on both ends of the deal, as Toronto was competing against Beijing for the Olympics while Dick Pound of Montreal was running against Rogge.
The IOC denied the accusation made in the book.
"Jacques Rogge was elected IOC president by a large majority," the committee said in a statement from Lausanne, Switzerland. "As a candidate, he built his campaign on a strong program that was widely welcome by IOC members. Any insinuation that deals would have been made is absolutely false."
Yuan wrote that while there was no written agreement from either party, multiple meetings yielded a mutual understanding of support if Rogge won the election.
"The Beijing Olympic bid committee decided on a tactic of strategic alliance-making," Yuan writes in his memoir. "We would link Chinese support for Rogge in exchange for European committee members' support for Beijing. Of course, we also made some promises to link up with some of our friends in supporting Rogge. This tactic was our overall strategy."
Rogge, Beijing winners at 2001 meeting
Beijing went on to win the 2001 vote in Moscow, defeating Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka, Japan, after two rounds of voting.
Beijing received 56 votes in the second round, followed by Toronto with 22.
Rogge was elected IOC president at the same meeting in Moscow. He defeated four other candidates and received a winning majority of 59 votes in the second round, more than double the votes of Kim Un-yong of South Korea (23) and Pound (22).
Rogge was re-elected to a final four-year term this month in Copenhagen.
Yuan's book offers a small glimpse into the fevered politicking that surrounded the Moscow meeting in 2001.
A former Olympic sailor and orthopedic surgeon, Rogge was vying to take over an IOC trying to recover from corruption scandals surrounding previous Olympic bids. Beijing, meanwhile, was trying to become the first Chinese host for the Games in a quest that had become a matter of national pride.
Yuan's book, ghost-written by Yuan Shan, said not all in the Chinese delegation went along with the alleged deal. The book said a senior Chinese IOC official who was not identified voted against Rogge and instead backed Kim. The unnamed official is believed to be He Zhenliang, an IOC member since 1981 who is serving his final year in the 112-member committee.
"A senior Chinese member in the IOC purposely defied our strategies and nominated IOC member Kim Un-yong, causing awkwardness for the Beijing Olympic Committee," Yuan wrote in his memoir.
