Dumb and dumber for the USOC
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BEIJING -- The Chicago 2016 bid committee should be thankful there isn’t a global or continental multi-sports competition in which U.S. athletes will compete next summer.
Otherwise, the folks trying to bring the Summer Games to Chicago would be holding their breath, waiting for the next gaffe by U.S. Olympic Committee employees, which would be fresh in the minds of International Olympic Committee members when they choose the 2016 host on Oct. 2, 2009.
One happened at this Olympics, the other at the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil.
The latest misstep, which drew an IOC reprimand, looked like an attempt to bribe U.S. athletes into voting for Julie Foudy as an IOC athletes’ commission member.
Some genius in the USOC decided the best way to have an election in the best Chicago tradition -- voting early and often -- was to offer its athletes a $50 voucher for purchases at the Olympic store in USA House here, but only after they had voted.
Foudy, a three-time soccer Olympian and two-time gold medalist, is among 29 candidates for four spots in a vote by 2008 Olympic athletes. The four elected also have an eight-year term as IOC members.
Another IOC member from the United States obviously would be another vote for Chicago in the 2016 contest with Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
The IOC athletes’ commission decided the handling of the voucher offer violated the spirit of rules in an ongoing election that ends Thursday.
The IOC also reprimanded the German candidate, fencer Claudia Bokel, for distributing leaflets in the Olympic village, which directly violates the rules.
USOC officials apologized to the rest of the world’s National Olympic Committees for the blunder.
‘We intended to give out the vouchers in any case, but a decision was made to do it earlier to encourage athletes to vote,’’ USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. ‘There certainly wasn’t any intent to push the limit of the rules.’’
USOC staffers had offended both their hosts at the 2007 Pan American Games and any number of African countries with a commentary on the lack of air conditioning in their office at the main press center in a Rio suburb.
Someone wrote ‘Welcome to the Congo’’ in red ink on a white board. A picture of the message, with a USOC staffer sitting obliviously in front of it, appeared in the Brazilian newspaper, O Globo.
The USOC immediately went into full damage control. It issued a statement of ‘deep apology’ to the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro for ‘regrettable actions and sent apologies in person to the mayor of Rio and senior officials in the Brazilian Olympic Committee, the Pan Am Games organizing committee and the Pan American Sports Organization.
The election incident here was not as serious.
‘I haven’t had a single conversation about it with an IOC member,’’ Bob Ctvrtlik, the USOC vice president for international relations, said Tuesday. Ctvrtlik is one of the IOC athlete members whose term ends Sunday.
IOC member Richard Pound of Canada, a frequent critic of the USOC in the past, said this mistake would not hurt Chicago’s chances because it is ‘so unimportant in the big picture.’’ He thought the other candidates would be reluctant to use it in a negative campaign.
‘I think that would discredit them more than this does the American bid,’’ he said.
Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said the USOC remains a strong partner with Chicago.
‘The USOC has certainly been an asset to our campaign in Beijing,’’ Sandusky said, ‘in letting us use USA House to host international sports officials and give Chicago a presence here.’’
The USOC leadership has spent a lot of time corralling IOC members for meetings with Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan, giving him and the Second City’s bid the international visibility it lacks in comparison with the ‘first cities’’ of the other three countries.
And Chicago boosters can be relieved that no U.S. athletes have struck an offensive pose mimicking the shape of Chinese eyes, as Spain’s basketball team did.
-- Philip Hersh
