USOC Threat Prompts Bobsled Officials to Quit : Olympics: Financial mismanagement resulted in warning that federation might be decertified. New board will be elected.

Confronted with the loss of confidence of its membership and possible decertification by the U.S. Olympic Committee because of financial mismanagement, the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation’s Board of Directors has resigned.

Jim Hickey, USBSF executive director, said Monday that the board members unanimously voted themselves out of office during a meeting Saturday at federation headquarters in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“They felt it was their fault that the sport has not been properly administered,” said Hickey, who was hired by the board in January to bail out the federation.

“They decided to resign in the best interests of our membership, the athletes and everyone else. It was necessary to put the bobsled federation back on the right track.”

The action was endorsed by the USOC, which announced Monday a task force, consisting of three representatives from the federation and three from the USOC, has been formed to supervise the federation’s reorganization, culminating with the election of a new board of directors by July 15.

The USOC had threatened to withdraw its recognition of the federation if it did not supply complete financial records by April 15 for an independent audit. The USOC never has decertified a federation for any of the 41 Olympic and Pan American Games sports that it oversees.

“It’s very unlikely that we’ll take any further action at this time,” said John Samuelson, the USOC’s chief financial officer. “A federation consists of its membership, but, in reality, our concerns were with the leadership. The leadership has resigned.”

The USOC began its investigation last fall after receiving anonymous letters alleging that high-ranking federation officials practiced favoritism and intimidation in dealing with athletes and were diverting funds from the federation.

When it was discovered that the USBSF had not submitted to an external audit since 1988, although annual external audits for federations are required by the USOC, the USOC seized control of the federation’s finances and ordered an independent audit.

The auditors reported to the USOC in December that the federation did not have records to account for all of its funds, including $100,000 that was deposited into a Swiss bank account between 1986 and 1988 by the federation’s former treasurer, Jean Chaintreuil, a Rochester, N.Y., accountant.

Hickey said Monday that the USBSF’s books now are in order and will be available to auditors before the end of the month. When the audit is completed, he said he will ask the USOC to restore the federation’s control over its finances. The federation has a $700,000 annual budget, about $400,000 of which comes from the USOC.

The USBSF’s problems have come at a time of renewed interest in the bobsled because of efforts by well-known athletes in other sports--track’s Edwin Moses and football’s Willie Gault and Herschel Walker--to earn berths on the two-man and four-man teams for the 1992 Winter Olympics.