Spirit Awards Get Stuffed

Carl Lewis, the self-absorbed magnet for controversy at these Backroom Olympics, was thrust onto yet another pungently odiferous pedestal Saturday morning.

In an overblown stage production, he was presented the U.S. Olympic Committee’s prestigious Spirit Award as the outstanding American male during these Games. Gymnast Kerri Strug won the female Spirit Award.

Easy to make a case for Strug, who nailed a team gold by courageously vaulting on an already sprained ankle. Also possible to make a case for Lewis, the five-time Olympian who, in dramatic fashion, won his record-tying ninth gold medal in the long jump Monday night.

What’s not as easy is to find is anyone who voted for Carl in balloting for the increasingly prestigious award. Ordinarily, winning an election requires one’s name to be scrawled on a certain number of ballots. Except, of course, in Chicago or Louisiana. Or the USOC/BMW precinct.

Strug and Lewis were each presented with $10,000 and designer trophies by BMW, the award sponsor, on Saturday morning at the German automaker’s Olympic headquarters in downtown Atlanta. Sort of an MVP with a Doris Day twist, the Spirit Awards are intended to honor the singular competitors who both excelled and exhibited all those lofty Olympic ideals. Inaugurated in ‘88 at Seoul, the Spirit wards are decided through balloting open to the U.S. journalists - numbering 731 this year - covering the Games.

Strug’s selection is plausible. The pick of Lewis, however, had eyebrows all over the room breaking Olympic high-jump records. Lewis had been at the center of debate all week after launching a campaign to run on the 4x100 relay team for which he did not qualify. When questioned about the vote totals for Lewis and other top candidates, USOC press chief Mike Moran stiffly replied that such information was off limits.

Over the next few hours, the Orlando Sentinel’s Olympic reporting team conducted an unscientific, but extensive “exit poll,” fanning out through the Main Press Center and various venues to ask U.S. reporters to reveal the two names jotted onto their Spirit Award ballots. Of some 250 asked, only 27 said they voted and of those, none - repeat NONE said they voted for Lewis.

Sprinter Michael Johnson led the men with 13 of those votes, followed by wrestlers Kurt Angle and Matt Ghaffari. Orlando softball sweetheart Dot Richardson led the women with 13 “exit” votes, followed by Strug and swimmer Angel Martino. Even brash Dream Teamer Charles Barkley got a vote. Carl Lewis got none that we could find.

Most reporters polled expressed shock that Lewis had been honored. “Carl Lewis? You’re kidding!” scoffed an Oakland reporter named Jeff.

“He’s the LAST guy who should win a spirit award,” snorted Tampa scribe Mick Elliott.

“Carl won? The fix had to be on,” said New Jersey columnist Mike Celizak.

Maybe not a fix, but at the very least this was one ballot box Jimmy Carter definitely needed to monitor.

Did BMW simply override the votes to attach its trophy to a high-profile athlete still in Atlanta for its dog-and-pony show? BMW spokesman Richard Brooks conceded that it was important to his company that the winners physically appear at the press conference, but added that was not, of course, a criteria. Of course. Did some heavy hammer (usual suspects: Nike, NBC, track czar Primo Nebiolo) mandate Lewis to BMW or the USOC?

Or was there some Greco-Roman freestyle ballot-box stuffing? The USOC press office certainly invited that possibility by first requiring no signatures on the ballots, then by locating the ballot box and a stack of blank ballots in the reception area of the USOC press office where journalists and assorted others flow in and out each day during the Olympics.

In the aftermath of the announcement, you couldn’t tell all the conflicting statements from the conflicting statements.

At 11 a.m. Moran said he and his staff tallied the “roughly 350” ballots and gave BMW only the names of the two winners, thus keeping the automaker clear of the voting process. BMW spokesman Richard Brooks said the company had decided it was best to distance itself from the balloting.

Shortly after noon, Moran’s two top aides, Frank Zang and Bob Condron, said they had no knowledge of anyone on their staff counting the ballots and agreed that a BMW official unfamiliar to them (later identified as Brooks) picked up all of the ballots shortly after the voting deadline.

In mid-afternoon, when informed that the Orlando Sentinel staff had informally polled more than 200 U.S. media members without finding a single vote for Lewis, Moran contradicted his earlier remarks, claiming now he had “turned over all of the voting results and ballots to BMW” and said the automaker remained in possession of the ballots. “I’m not concerned about the integrity of the award,” he said.

But wasn’t he concerned no breathing elector could be found who voted for Lewis? “I can’t let that concern me.” said Moran. “I’m completely satisfied with the integrity of the system.”

Minutes later, BMW spokesman Brooks responded to a request to see the ballots by saying he had only the ballot box, but not the ballots. Who does? “Dunno,” he said.

At 6 p.m., Moran strolled into the Orlando Sentinel’s work cubicle in the Main Press Center to report that the ballots had been located in USOC corporate offices at the nearby Hilton. He said he and a high USOC official jointly recounted the ballots and reaffirmed that Strug had outpolled runner-up Richardson, and Lewis edged Ghaffari. And, no, he didn’t have the ballots with him.

This seems similar to when Big Julie, in “Guys & Dolls,” threw the dice into his hat and announced he had made his point. Life imitates Broadway.

The Spirit Awards are worthwhile endeavors, obviously needing some safeguards and fresh air. USOC executive director Dick Shultz and BMW North American CEO Helmut Panke agreed that a review of the voting process and announcement policy might be in order. Also in need of review is the voting deadline, which this year was Thursday at 10 a.m. - with nearly four days of competition yet to be completed. Seems BMW insisted on that generous lead time to produce the slick, Bud Greenspan-produced videos of Strug and Lewis shown at Saturday’s press conference. Talk about the tail wagging the mutt.

And put out those vote totals for all to see, like most every other sports award in this country.

Moran explained that the thinking was that listing the also-rans label them as “losers. And on this award, there really isn’t a loser.”

However, there was at least one loser. Integrity.