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"Gosperopoulos" - it's Greek for nepotism!
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Gosper family Olympic furore
By STEPHANIE PEATLING and JACQUELIN MAGNAY Thursday 11 May 2000 (The Age newspaper)
Australia's senior IOC official, Kevan Gosper, rejected a last-minute plea yesterday to stop his daughter being handed the Olympic torch at the start of its journey from Greece to Sydney.
Sophie Gosper, 11, became the first Australian to carry the freshly-lit torch at a ceremony in Olympia last night, amid a national outcry at home over her role.
Australian Olympic officials, politicians and former sports stars all joined in condemnation of Ms Gosper's role in the wake of recent controversies over gifts and favors to IOC officials.
Hours before yesterday's ceremony, Sydney Olympics Minister Michael Knight asked Mr Gosper at a breakfast meeting in Olympia to reconsider his daughter's role.
Members of SOCOG's board and Australia's party to Olympia were understood to be furious over the decision to make Ms Gosper the first Australian to carry the torch.
Swimming legend Dawn Fraser also expressed disgust. "Are the Greeks doing this because they have been told they may lose the Olympic Games?," she said.
It is believed that Mr Gosper had politely suggested to Greek organisers that his daughter take part in the Greek section of the torch relay because she was too young to participate in the Australian leg. Torch bearers have to be 12 in Australia.
An Olympic source said that Mr Gosper had been under pressure from his wife Judy to find an appropriate role for Sophie, particularly as their other child, Richard, had run a leg of the torch relay at the Atlanta Olympics four years ago.
Until yesterday, it had been assumed that a 16-year old Greek Australian schoolgirl would take the torch from the Greek high jump champion Lambros Papacostas in the Olympia ceremony.
Miss Yianna Souleles, a student at St Spyridion College in Sydney, had been announced in April as the first Australian to carry the torch.
But Father Steven Scoutas, the school's priest who arranged with the Hellenic Organising Committee for Ms Souleles to participate, said they had never been given any indication that she would be the first Australian torch bearer.
The school was told the arrangements as to where Yianna would run would be made once the students arrived in Athens. That was three weeks ago, the same time as Mr Gosper said he received an invitation for his daughter to participate.
Mr Gosper - presently under investigation by the IOC ethics committee looking into the bidding process for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City - told reporters in Greece he took no part in the decision to give his daughter the prime torch-bearing role. Speaking in Olympia, he said the offer from the Greek organisers for his daughter was a "simple and generous gesture" that had been "taken off the rails by, I guess, classical media debate".
SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway denied that the Gosper family had jumped the queue and described the issue as "a giant storm in a teacup".
Ms Souleles' parents, grandparents and three younger brothers and sisters were in Olympia to watch her run last night.
Her uncle, George Souleles, said he felt sorry for Sophie Gosper who would "dragged into something that is not her fault".
Ms Souleles told ABC radio yesterday there were no hard feelings. "I actually met Sophie just now and it is great another Australian is running," she said.
But other members of the Greek community were outraged. The editor the Greek National Vema newspaper said the organisers in Athens had forgotten Australia's Greek community.
"I think it's a shameful decision," said Antonis Petrogiannis.
"I feel betrayed as a Greek-Australian about the decision from Greece... as far as the Hellenic Olympic Committee is concerned, Australia's Greek community does not exist."
Akis Haralabopolous, from the Secretariat of the NSW Hellenic Council, accused Mr Gosper of trying to jump the queue. "It's a disappointing development," he said.
"The Hellenic Olympic Committee as well as Kevan Gosper should have known better than to agree to something like this. There's obvious queue-jumping going on, without any consideration to previous preparations that have been made."
One top-level sponsor of the Olympic Games expressed disgust. "It's just extremely arrogant of this individual and it shows an appalling lack of judgment."
NSW Opposition leader Kerry Chikarovski said allowing the daughter of Mr Gosper to replace Ms Souleles as Australia's first Olympic torch-bearer was wrong.
"It's very disappointing that we have two young Australian girls now caught up in this controversy," she said.
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