USOPC

How to win, and how to lose with grace ... on being a role model, and true sportsmanship

How to win, and how to lose with grace ... on being a role model, and true sportsmanship

In his keynote address Thursday to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic assembly, Gene Sykes, the chair of the USOPC board, offered a few words about the role of U.S. athletes. A few minutes later, the USOPC bestowed its Jack Kelly Fair Play Award on Hunter Armstrong, an American swimmer.

 The Olympic movement can often seem rough around the edges. It carries with it the attributes of a very big – a billion-dollar – business. The geopolitics of it all can be wearisome to many. Then there’s the doping, the corruption, the hard realities of living in a world often at odds with the aspirational ideals, the best of each and all of us, that the Olympics stands for.

It served then as a genuinely lovely reminder Thursday to listen first to Sykes, and then to Armstrong, to remember what’s at the core of the Olympics. Why it matters so very much in our broken and fragile world. Still.

Here's hoping a U.S. panel on the 'state' of the Olympics thinks -- big

Here's hoping a U.S. panel on the 'state' of the Olympics thinks -- big

The United States Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has empowered a Commission to study the “state” of the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics.

Rather than surrendering to an avalanche of easy jokes, having covered the “state” of this enterprise for 25 years, having myself triggered the last major reconstruction amid Congressional hearings of the then-USOC board structure in 2003, sparked by a story I wrote in late 2002 for the Los Angeles Times, let’s simply note that the new USOPC board chair, Gene Sykes, is a man of uncommon decency and intelligence, so there’s hope.

At the same time, it’s not clear whether Congress, sparked by the Larry Nassar scandal, wants 1/ yet again to point fingers, or 2/ a report that like many things in Washington amounts to a lot of words but says nothing because 3/ something performative allows Congress to go, yep, we did something because we all know Larry Nassar was a really bad guy and, oh, China almost beat us in the medals count at the Tokyo Olympics, and what is that about?

Sarah Hirshland is USOPC chief executive. A guessing game: for how long?

Sarah Hirshland is USOPC chief executive. A guessing game: for how long?

Senior leadership at the International Olympic Committee neither likes nor respects Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

She has little support among some number of key executives who head the 50 national governing bodies here in the United States.

She makes a big show of supporting U.S. Olympic athletes but late last week fired, and unceremoniously, Rick Adams, the one person at the USOPC who knew the most about getting athletes to perform their best at the Olympic Games, Winter and Summer.

A popular behind-the-scenes guessing game: how much longer will Hirshland remain chief executive?

How much longer should she?

Team USA to Asia this summer and next winter -- and China, take note, is rising

Team USA to Asia this summer and next winter -- and China, take note, is rising

In 2015, the American sprinter Justin Gatlin had been on fire. He came into the track and field world championships that August at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing having run the 100-meter dash in 9.74 seconds in May and then 9.75 twice, once in June and again in July.

In the world semifinals, Gatlin ran 9.77. He was, as he had been all season, the heavy favorite for gold.

In the final, nearing the finish line, Gatlin’s form caught just enough to throw him off stride. Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the race, in 9.79. Gatlin finished in 9.80.

That race would prove emblematic of the American performance at those 2015 championships. The U.S. team won just 18 medals, only six gold. Kenya and Jamaica won more gold, both seven. Now, with the Tokyo Olympics coming up, the question is whether that 2015 trip to Asia was an aberration for the American team or whether it’s a signal of what’s to come this summer.

And, for that matter, next February — at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

What's your history? What's on your Insta page? Should it be?

What's your history? What's on your Insta page? Should it be?

Roughly twice a month, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee sends out a fundraising appeal. Each appeal features a different Team USA athlete. So, in all, these appeals feature roughly 25 athletes a year, each of whom gets what is described as a modest fee for appearing in the USOPC advertisement.

Fundraising is big business for the USOPC. Over what is called the 2017-2020 quadrennium, it exceeded its $125 million overall goal; the final numbers are still being calculated, according to Paul Florence, senior vice president for strategy and operations. The twice-per-month appeals — which go out via direct mail and electronically — accounted for $3.54 million in 2020, up ever-so-slightly from $3.50 in 2019, Florence said.

This is the story of one such recent appeal — a tale that underscores two basic tenets.

First, athletes are entitled to their personal lives, which they assuredly can express on their social media pages. But when the USOPC opts to feature an American athlete in its fundraising materials, it should — must — perform adequate due diligence in reviewing what’s on those pages to ensure it does not undermine or contradict the Olympic values and the USOPC mission.

Second, though this story centers around track and field, it is well beyond that. To effect change going forward, it is key to understand how things not just are changing but have changed, and dramatically. Social media is increasingly central as a means for athletes to tell their own stories without using the press, which traditionally served as a filtering — and thus, in its way, a vetting — medium. The upshot: these issues can affect any and every sport. There are literally dozens in the USOC landscape. All the same, the USOPC must do such due diligence for any and every athlete it chooses to promote. Track and field is not unique. Not hardly.

'Pray for our world': the disaster of the Trump presidency and, now, the Capitol insurrection

'Pray for our world': the disaster of the Trump presidency and, now, the Capitol insurrection

In June 2017, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee president, held a meeting —tumultuous and all but disastrous — at the White House with Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States.

Details of the meeting, held as the IOC was working its way toward what would be an unprecedented double allocation that September of the Summer Games, Paris for 2024 and Los Angeles for 2028, have remained tightly held. Neither the IOC nor Trump have ever issued a formal statement on the matter. Trump, who posted thousands of times to Twitter before the service banned him permanently on Friday, said nary a word on the site about this particular meeting.

After the meeting broke up that June afternoon, it can be revealed, Bach turned to his mobile phone. Multiple sources confirm he said these words: “Pray for our world.”

This is Congress-driven USOPC 'reform'? A 73-year-old gets one 'athlete' board spot, a 64-year-old another

This is Congress-driven USOPC 'reform'? A 73-year-old gets one 'athlete' board spot, a 64-year-old another

Once again, we turn to maybe the very best thing Mark Twain said, a turn of phrase I noted in a column a few years back and repeat for emphasis, because when it comes to Congress and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, you know:

“Suppose you were an idiot,” Twain said. “And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

In this context, we turn to the purported “reform” of the USOPC, its new members of the board of directors formally announced Monday.

After years of investigations and Congressionally mandated governance fixes purportedly designed to fix everything, this — this — is it?

'Welcome back America': Does USOPC know world's love for American idea, and ideal?

'Welcome back America': Does USOPC know world's love for American idea, and ideal?

Joe Biden, addressing the nation for the first time Saturday night as president-elect, said it was time to heal and asserted, “We must restore the soul of America.”

Indeed. With the elephant in the room returning to golf in his golden Floridian enclave, we breathe fresh air, a collective sigh of relief. Moreover, it is time for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee to play what should be its vital part in deeply recommitting and reconnecting all Americans to truly be great again.

And to be what the world wants America to be — an ideal. The world loves the idea of America. That is the responsibility of the USOPC: to uphold and advance the best of the American ideas and ideals.

Now comes the question: can it be, can it do those things?

If you ask the rest of the world, “What is the vision of the USOPC,” the answer would be, “We don’t know.” It’s true. Nobody knows. Surely, too, someone would say, “Why should we care?”

Because this is what we have learned over the past four years. Not only is it important to care. It is vital to know what America is and what America stands for.

If Kobe were here, what would he say about the USOPC and its mission?

If Kobe were here, what would he say about the USOPC and its mission?

A few days ago, the Borders Commission issued a year-after follow-on report into its road map — 39 different steps — for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in the aftermath of sex-abuse scandals involving gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and others.

In essence, many of the 39 steps called for more athlete representation across the U.S. Olympic team and increased oversight over the national governing bodies, or NGBs, that are affiliated with the USOPC. Of the 39, the Borders group said the USOPC is on the way toward implementing 34 and at least part of the way on the other five.

Congress, meanwhile, has been moving ahead with legislation that would include many of the same changes but also include a feature that would give lawmakers the ability to remove the entire USOPC board.

“I give them a lot of credit,” Lisa Borders, the former WNBA commissioner who headed the panel, told Associated Press. “It’s hard for folks to admit they need help. The USOPC not only admitted they needed help, they solicited help, they took help, they embraced it and endorsed it and enabled it. That’s huge. Is it perfect? No. But hugely on track? Yes.”

This space begs to disagree.

The USOPC, heading toward the fall and the annual Assembly, this year to be held online, is a hot mess.

Nothing in our world comes for free: a reckoning long overdue

Nothing in our world comes for free: a reckoning long overdue

A few weeks ago, Stanford cut nine Olympic sports from its 36-team varsity program, saying the pandemic forced it to make hard budget cuts.

Last week, the University of Iowa announced it was cutting men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s swimming, saying the athletic department this year would lose about $100 million in revenue and would be operating at a loss of $60 to $75 million. In a note of irony, the $69 million Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, which opened in 2010, and which the school put some $5 million into just last summer for repairs, is due to stage the 2021 men’s NCAA championships.

Iowa is the first Power Five school to cut its swim and dive program amid the crisis. Five other Division I schools, according to the website SwimSwam, have already announced cuts: Boise State (women’s), UConn (men), Dartmouth (both), East Carolina (both), Western Illinois (both).

Nebraska on Friday announced that 51 athletic department staffers will be furloughed from Sept. 1 through the end of the year. Athletic director Bill Moos said earlier, “We are now looking at a deficit in athletics alone … of north of $100 million. If we can get the television revenue or parts of it, with a non-traditional (spring) season, that will help. But each home football game is worth $12 million, and that didn’t count television and our media partners and all those things … Now we have a solid feel for the dilemma we’re facing … that is a daunting exercise.”

This is just the beginning.