USOC Cancels Plans for Festival in 1997 : Olympics: Lack of preparation time considered key factor.

The executive committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee decided Saturday not to hold an Olympic Festival in 1997.

Seattle, Dallas, Phoenix and Richmond, Va., had been in the running for the 1997 and 1999 festivals.

USOC President LeRoy Walker said the executive committee took the action based in part on the lack of time the host city would have to prepare for the ’97 festival.

He said a task force that is studying the festival will soon make a recommendation on how best to spend the $4.2 million that the USOC puts toward the festival.

“We are studying at great length the menu of domestic and international competitions available to our athletes and trying to reach a consensus on the direction and the format and the priority that we wish to follow in order to make that particular expenditure in the best interest of our athletes,” Walker said.

“While we’re still deliberating these issues, we really feel that it would not be fair to postpone our decisions on staging the 1997 Olympic Festival.”

Also Saturday, the executive committee approved spending about $4 million to be used for “Hometeam ‘96,” a program intended to ensure a strong showing for the U.S. team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

And, it approved spending $29 million to upgrade the facilities at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

John Krimsky Jr., interim executive director for the USOC, said the money from Hometeam ’96 will go to athletes and coaches to help them best prepare for the Games.

“This is really the culmination of everything the USOC can do to help our 700-plus athletes win more medals in Atlanta than any other country,” he said. “That’s the whole purpose of this program--to win the medal count.”

He said the executive committee approved the use of near-term cash, additional resources and the use of some facilities in the Atlanta area. Decisions on who will get the money will be made with input from coaches and the national governing bodies.

Krimsky said the intent is to allow athletes to get acclimated to the warm climate, see the venues before the competition “and basically having the home-team advantage.”

“We’re going to win the medal count in Atlanta, but we want to surprise people with a really strong performance of the United States team.”

The upgrading of the training center will include tearing down old structures and replacing them with first-rate dormitories, dining halls, sports medicine facilities, etc.

Construction will begin in December and work will be completed at the end of January 1997, Krimsky said.

“When we finish, we will really have the state-of-the art training center in the world,” he said.