USOC Suspends Bobsled Funding

The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Friday that it has suspended its funding of the U.S. Bobsled Federation while it conducts a full-scale audit of alleged misuse of federation money.

A three-member team of independent auditors will begin examining financial records next week at federation headquarters in Lake Placid, N.Y. John Samuelson, the USOC’s chief financial officer, said the audit is expected to take about two weeks.

“This has never happened before,” Samuelson said. “This is a precedent.”

The USOC board of directors voted last month to stop the grants to the federation, which has received nearly $1.2 million from the nation’s Olympic governing body since 1988. Instead, Samuelson said the USOC is allocating funds directly to athletes in training.

The federation’s executive director denied any wrongdoing.

“There is no misspending of money. The audit will show that all the money that is spent from this organization is accounted for,” said David Heim, the bobsled federation’s executive director since 1986.

The federation’s failure to file an audit for 1989 prompted the USOC to look into the matter. “That got our attention,” Samuelson said.

Heim said the failure to do last year’s audit was because of an oversight.