He resigned as the USOC senior director of international relations and protocol in January 1999.He was expected to plead guilty to two counts of tax fraud Tuesday or Wednesday in U.S District Court, the Justice Department said. La Mont also agreed to assist the Justice Department investigation, which is expected to be concluded within a year.Two others - a businessman and the son of an IOC member - have been charged in the scandal in which Salt Lake bid officials gave more than dlrs 1 million in cash, gifts and scholarships to IOC members before winning the rights to the 2002 Winter Olympics.Lamont was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to impede and obstruct the IRS. The second count accused him of filing a false tax return for 1997.That tax return omitted dlrs 40,000 in income he received from the Rome bid committee, according to court documents. Rome bid for the 2004 Summer Games but lost to Athens.The first charge carries a maximum sentence of five years and a dlrs 250,000 fine. The second charge can bring a three-year sentence and a dlrs 100,000 fine.Investigators say La Mont used a company called Citius, Inc.

as a front to conceal income he received from the Salt Lake bid committee.Documents made public Tuesday say Lamont agreed to "obtain and provide information and services to assist (the bid committee) ... in defeating the other United States cities against which it was competing to be selected" to stage the 1998 Winter Games. Those games eventually went to Nagano, Japan.Lamont also agreed to "obtain and provide information and services to assist the bid committee in its efforts to influence members of the IOC so as to have Salt Lake City selected by the IOC as the host for the Winter Olympic Games. These efforts included funneling money to an IOC member," the documents say.Money was passed through Citius, Inc., a fictitious Mexican company to compensate La Mont.The document said La Mont helped create a paper trail to conceal the transactions between the Salt Lake bid committee and Citius. The bid committee paid Lamont dlrs 48,514, the document said.La Mont resigned his USOC post after the disclosure of his business relationship with Tom Welch, then-president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.La Mont earned more than dlrs 63,000 for providing information on and arranging meetings with Latin American members of the International Olympic Committee, an Olympics scandal ethics report found.Businessman David Simmons pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax violation in August 1999. He admitted illegally deducting the salary of the son of South Korean IOC member Kim Un-yong as a business expense.The money to pay Kim's son, Kim Jung-hoon, came from the Salt Lake bid committee. Kim Jung-hoon was indicted a month later on charges that he lied to federal investigators and fraudulently obtained a green card.

The elder Kim was reprimanded by the IOC.An internal USOC investigation found that in 1988, La Mont asked the USOC to wire as much as dlrs 20,000 to a Washington bank to cover air fare and other expenses incurred by IOC members attending a meeting there.USOC chief financial officer John Samuelson said La Mont took the IOC officials shopping with the cash.La Mont, 50, also was affiliated with ARCA Inc., another consulting company hired by the Salt Lake bid committee in 1992, according to a separate SLOC ethics report. La Mont told the USOC the company was owned by his wife and exported medical equipment.But the SLOC ethics board found ARCA received more than dlrs 18,000 from the bid committee, including dlrs 3,000 channeled through the company to Austin Sealy, an IOC member from Barbados.Sealy said the money went to his son, who had been hired by ARCA and did not know of ARCA's affiliation with the Salt Lake bid. The IOC reprimanded Sealy.---On the Net:USOC Web site: http:// www.usoc Salt Lake organizers Web site: http:// www.slc2002 . Six months to lift off, and counting. Six months to lift off, and counting. Seven years in the making, the Sydney 2000 Olympics - the sporting spectacular to launch the millennium - will open Sept. 15 to a 110,000-capacity Stadium Australia and will be beamed to billions of television viewers worldwide.Then, and probably only then, will the core business of the Olympics - the competition - take priority over organizational problems as 10,200 athletes compete in 28 sports across 640 sessions.Until then Sydney 2000 organizers, still recovering from a series of ticketing bungles and a budget blowout, will continue to come under fire from welfare, labor, indigenous and environmental lobbies.Public servants, including bus drivers, police and ambulance officers, last week threatened to strike during the Olympics unless SOCOG agrees to new wage demands.And a national survey released this week revealed at least one-third of Australians were skeptical of the Games and its organizers.But the public confidence is expected to improve after SOCOG announces, after a board meeting later this week, how it will distribute the remaining two million tickets.SOCOG is saying early response to advertisements for volunteers to work at the Games has been positive.The organizers have already delivered world class facilities at Homebush Bay, where the bulk of venues are located within the Olympic Park, and have been commended by International Olympic Committee supremo Juan Antonio Samaranch.But further teething problems lie ahead in the next 184 days.The Aquatic Center at Homebush Bay was completed but extension works to a grandstand came to a standstill last week when construction workers walked off the site due to safety concerns.An Olympic Coordination Authority review concluded the problems were not intrinsic in the design and that the contractor was responsible for safety issuesised that the extensions will be finished on schedule.That leaves just two venues to complete.The waterpolo facility is expected to be finished on time but the 10,000-seat beach volleyball stadium at Bondi Beach is still the center of bitter debate.Bondi residents, objecting to environmental degradation and lack of public access to the beach, have vowed to block construction.OCA says the construction, use and demolition process will be compressed to under six months and with "a mid-winter construction start, the impact to beach users should be minimized."But Bondi Olympic Watch spokesman Lenny Kovner is promising a "messy protest" when OCA finishes "infiltrating the pavilion by stealth" and starts full scale work."We're keeping our powderkeg dry and waiting for the right time to explode," he said.Kovner said he had at least 200 "Bondi Warriors" among his campaigners who were prepared to "spend the night in jail if they need to, not just wave their fists around."Another potential menace for organizers is lurking near the beaches.A series of shark attacks on rowing craft in Sydney Harbor has raised safety concerns about holding the swimming leg of the Olympic triathlon event in the harbor.Although there hasn't been a fatal attack in Sydney for at least three decades and marine experts say sharks will not be a problem in September.Environmental watchdog Greenpeace says SOCOG has broken its promise to produce a "Green Games" by surrendering control of venues to OCA and that time is running out to rectify the problems.Greenpeace spokesman Corin Millais said OCA had a "poor track record on environmental issues" but he was awaiting its response within days to eight key areas of concern before giving his verdict on the organizers."It's not looking good at the moment - there are environmental requirements which are just being ignored," he said.On the positive side, the test events to date have gone off without a hitch, said SOCOG venues manager John Quayle.Quayle said catering, security and seating arrangements had run smoothly, while spectators and athletes were full of praise for the facilities.Strong winds have marred recent athletics and rowing events but organizers say the weather conditions will be different in September, when heat and wind will not be major problems.The IOC's coordination commission chairman Jacques Rogge says Sydney can produce the best games ever."Everything is in place to have an excellent Games," he said.

"For the first time, everything is ready six months before the Games. This is a record."IOC delegates who met in Sydney last month for an executive board meeting were amazed that Sydney organizers could be having any public relations problems.Montreal, Munich, Moscow, Los Angeles, Seoul and Atlanta Games experienced problems ranging from last-minute construction concerns to terrorist attacks and international boycotts, said Rogge.Sydney had some ticketing problems and had failed to reach sponsorship targets, which were unrealistic in the first place, but its problems were small scale for an Olympics, he added.. The International Amateur Athletic Federation have agreed to support UK Athletics' investigations into the effects of food supplements and herbal preparations on doping. The International Amateur Athletic Federation have agreed to support UK Athletics' investigations into the effects of food supplements and herbal preparations on doping. World athletics' governing body are to give a grant to their UK counterparts to assist the project while also launching their own research into the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.UK Athletics' investigations intend to monitor the effect of substances on volunteers after British athletes Linford Christie, Gary Cadogan, Dougie Walker and Mark Richardson all tested positive for nandrolone over the past 14 months.An IAAF statement read: "Following meetings this weekend in Monaco of the IAAF medical committee and anti-doping commission, the IAAF have decided to set up a research project to study the role of food supplements and herbal preparations in doping."This project will be conducted in co-operation with UK Athletics, other member federations and concerned athletes."The project involves the collection of data, internationally, regarding positive tests for nandrolone and other substances."The project will welcome statements from athletes who have tested positive for nandrolone and will examine the marketing regulations of supplements in countries where athletes are disputing findings.David Moorcroft, chief executive of UK Athletics, was pleased that the world body had heeded his call for more co-operation in research.He said: "We are delighted at the IAAF's decision to set up this research project and that the IAAF and UK Athletics will be working together to investigate this issue."The IAAF statement revealed: "Experimental research proposed by UK Athletics will also be crucial."The IAAF have agreed to support UK Athletics with a grant to help them to make a full study of the effect of various substances, including food supplements and herbal preparations, on selected volunteers."Published data in scientific journals about nandrolone, food supplements and herbal preparations will also be collected and studied."This information will be provided by the IAAF's scientific advisory board. The findings of this research will be summarised by the IAAF into an information report which will be made available to the international sports community."The project will be supervised by a group of senior IAAF members, chaired by senior vice-president Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden.UK Athletics president David Hemery said: "We hope that fruitful co-operation with the IAAF and the international and British scientific community will lead to findings which will be useful in resolving current issues surrounding nandrolone.". Shane Warne's bid to become Australia's No 1 all-time test bowler will have to wait another day Shane Warne's bid to become Australia's No.