INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

contacts with persons of the F.R.G. and other capitalistic
countries.” 23
For the I.O.C., and especially for its President Avery Brundage,
there were other stakes that were no less fundamental. First, from a
symbolic point of view, the members of the I.O.C. estimated that the
Olympic Winter Games of Grenoble were a joke of which they were
the victims. As Brundage explained, “We have not yet recovered from
the way we were betrayed by the F.I.S. at Grenoble” 24 . To fail again
in the application of the rules would have constituted a real
humiliation. Hugh Weir, President of the Eligibility Commission,
wrote to Avery Brundage:
“In my opinion there can be no compromise. There must be no
weakening and we must not be fooled again by F.I.S. as we were
at Grenoble. I repeat that all they want is to get over Sapporo
safely and then await a few months quietly until Avery Brundage
vacates the throne”. 25
They were particularly disappointed by the reversal of the
situation sometime before the beginning of the events with the
presence of the manufacturers’ names on skis:
“It is not the marks on skis that are our primary concern but the
illegitimate payments made “under the table” to skiers. Since this
is usually impossible to prove our only recourse was to eliminate
the advertising.
The International Ski Federation said that this would be done at
Grenoble last year and the day before the competition notified us
that it would not, much to our consternation and amazement”. 26
For Brundage, the maintenance of amateurism within the Olympic
Movement was more important than saving the face of the I.O.C. As
life philosophy, amateurism represented for him everything that was
positive 27 . The moment it ceased to be diffused, he felt, especially
through education, then would begin the decline.
“At the height of their power in intellect and culture, they were
also at the height of their athletic glory – and no other civilization
lasted as long as the Greek.
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