As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) struggles to address its image problem with a new television advertising campaign, their president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, will face US Congress members today as part of their investigation into alleged corruption during Atlanta's winning bid for the 1996 Olympics.
"I don't think it is a case of putting my head into the mouth of the wolf," Samaranch told the Spanish daily El Pais yesterday.
"However it's my obligation to go to the United States, which is a very important country inside the Olympic movement, and if Congress have some questions for me I am happy to respond.
"There could always be something to surprise me, but most of the things I have been accused of have never been proven - going to my office in a helicopter, wanting a red carpet when I leave an aeroplane, becoming General Franco's nomination of Spanish ambassador to the Soviet Union when we did not have diplomatic relations.
"Those (who say this) don't know the contemporary politics of my country. And I have always said that the problems that Spaniards have with me should be resolved in Spain . . . not by foreign journalists."
Samaranch will be travelling to the US on a diplomatic passport as a legacy of his days as Spain's ambassador to the Soviet Union, prior to his becoming IOC president in 1980.
Earlier this year Samaranch refused to testify before a US Senate panel investigating corruption into Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, but in October the IOC said Samaranch had accepted an invitation to appear before the Congressional hearing.
After discussions between the IOC and the US Department of Justice, Samaranch said he might return to the US in January to talk to the FBI concerning the Salt Lake City investigation.
On Friday the IOC said Samaranch would talk to the FBI, "at a mutually convenient time," after his trip to Washington.
Samaranch is travelling to the US on a regular scheduled flight and has not claimed the diplomatic immunity his passport, as a former Spanish ambassador to Moscow, could afford him.
The FBI have already questioned six IOC members, including vice-president Richard Pound.
The IOC will launch a television advertising campaign next month to promote the Olympic movement, a senior IOC executive said yesterday.
The television advertisements, boosted by radio and press advertising, will be run by the IOC's broadcasting partners across 200 countries in the build-up to the 2000 Games in Sydney next September.
The IOC last weekend approved a wide raft of reforms including a ban on IOC members visiting cities bidding for the Olympic Games, a bar on representatives of bidding cities meeting IOC members and the admission of active athletes to the committee.
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