USOC Board to Vote for New Leader

Beset by management turmoil, budget concerns and allegations that it ignores drug use by athletes even as it prepares for what will probably be the last Olympic Games in the United States for at least a decade, the U.S. Olympic Committee convenes today to pick a new leader.

In an increasingly close race, current vice chairs Sandy Baldwin and Paul George are vying to become the USOC chairperson, succeeding Bill Hybl.

The stakes are significant. Funding priorities, sponsorship opportunities, the naming of a permanent chief executive officer, readiness for the Salt Lake City Winter Games of 2002--all of that is on the table, and more.

“This meeting reflects the direction the United States Olympic Committee will take for the next decade,” Hybl said Saturday.

The USOC has long been the leading Olympic committee among the 199 nations now in the Olympic movement. As an example, the USOC--alone among all of the national Olympic committees--gets its own cut of the millions of dollars NBC sends to the International Olympic Committee for the rights to broadcast the Games.

U.S. athletes won the medal count at the Sydney Games, with 97. But that figure underscores the reality that the USOC--and American athletes--could do better. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, U.S. athletes won 101 medals. And more than a third of the 97 won in Sydney, 33, came in one sport--swimming.

Today’s vote of the 115-member board of directors comes amid a series of challenges that have confronted, and in some cases staggered, the USOC.

* Last month, CEO Norm Blake resigned after only nine months on the job.

Blake, a corporate turnaround artist, was hired to bring business savvy and structure to an organization long dominated by a cadre of highly political volunteers.

He cut 35 staff positions and reduced the number of working committees and task forces from 40 to four. Most controversially, he proposed what came to be called the “money for medals” plan--under which the USOC would allocate a greater share of its available dollars to those sports whose athletes performed well at the Olympic Games.

When he quit, he said he wasn’t sure if the USOC was truly committed to change. His critics complained that he was abrupt and didn’t build consensus.

* When Blake left, Scott Blackmun, the USOC’s director of sports resources and before that its top lawyer, was named acting CEO. It remains unclear whether he will be offered the job permanently--and if so, when and under what conditions, leaving open the possibility that the USOC will be adrift in the critical months leading up to the Salt Lake Games.

* After 2002, it is not clear when the Games will return to the United States, muddling the sponsorship picture.

The 2004 Summer Games will be in Athens; the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. No American cities are in the running for the yet-to-be-awarded 2008 Summer Games and 2010 Winter Games. Eight U.S. cities, among them Los Angeles, are expected to compete for the 2012 Summer Games, which the IOC will award in 2005.

Anti-U.S. sentiment remains considerable on the IOC because of the Salt Lake corruption scandal, which led last year to the resignation or ouster of 10 IOC members. Salt Lake bidders showered IOC members or their relatives with more than $1 million in cash, gifts, bogus scholarships and other inducements; the USOC was criticized for lack of oversight by a special panel led by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine).

The months before the Salt Lake Games are likely to see the trial in federal court in Utah of Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, who led the Salt Lake bid and now face mail fraud and other criminal charges.

Mitt Romney, the current head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, has said many times that he can’t control the legal proceedings. As for other matters, he said Saturday in Washington, “Salt Lake has its act pretty well together.”

Seeking to diminish expectations, he also said that the Salt Lake Games “will not [provide] the same spectacle as Sydney.” But, he said, “We will have Games Americans can be proud of.”

* USOC fund-raising has been slowed by the departure last year of John Krimsky, recognized throughout Olympic circles as a fund-raising wizard. Over 15 years, he helped raise about $2 billion.

The USOC will end 2000 with about $24 million in the bank, officials said last week. Its annual budget is about $110 million.

The USOC expects to break even at the close of the next four-year Olympic cycle, 2001-2004, chief financial officer Early Reese said Saturday.

* The last two doctors in charge of the USOC’s anti-doping efforts, Robert Voy and Wade Exum, have accused the organization of covering up positive drug tests and of creating a climate that encourages the use of performance-enhancing substances. Exum is suing the USOC in federal court in Denver; the USOC has denied wrongdoing.

In October, at the conclusion of the Sydney Games, the USOC handed over its testing program to an independent agency, the United States Anti-Doping Agency, headed by 1972 Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter.

With all that, the election between Baldwin and George has turned less on the many and varied issues than on matters of style.

Baldwin, a Phoenix businesswoman, is widely perceived to be the bolder of the two. She acted as chief of the U.S. team in Sydney and is a former president of both USA Shooting and USA Swimming.

“Right now we need stabilization and we need someone who will roll up her sleeves and help move this organization forward,” she said.

George, a Boston attorney, is viewed more as a quiet diplomat. He was chief of the U.S. team at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and served on the board of USA Hockey and the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.

“There is,” he said, “a desire for stability.”

Several USOC insiders said Saturday that Baldwin would have been a lock to be elected if the vote had been a month ago. She had helped spur Blake’s resignation by sending a letter to other board members that raised questions about his ability to run the USOC and concerns about the 2001-2004 budget.

Insiders said Saturday that George has closed the gap. His key supporters include many of those who helped Hybl defeat Los Angeles businessman Michael Lenard four years ago.