Nagano officials bribed delegates

SALT LAKE CITY – Japanese boosters lavished millions of dollars on delegates who granted the 1998 Winter Olympics to Nagano, according to a report ordered by the region’s governor.

The report from the Nagano Prefecture Investigation Group said the Japanese city provided an “illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality” to members of the International Olympic Committee in vying for the bid.

Many Olympic insiders said Salt Lake City deserved to win that bid but couldn’t match Nagano’s gift-giving.

The Nagano report made Salt Lake’s favors appear meager by comparison. For example, Nagano boosters left video cameras in hotel rooms as gifts for IOC members on the eve of the vote for the 1998 games; Salt Lake left disposable cameras.

But Nagano won its bid by spending $4.4 million entertaining IOC members, another $544,000 on unspecified souvenirs, plus $776,000 that was unaccounted for, according to the report from Japan.

The report put Nagano’s total bid expenses at $24 million, more than twice what Salt Lake spent on two bid campaigns.