By George, U.S. to Show Its Medal Now

Even before the collapse of the U.S. team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, was complete, desperate U.S. Olympic Committee officials called on George Steinbrenner.

Asking him to turn his attention from beating the American League East to beating the world, they appointed him to chair an Olympic overview commission. The mission was to ensure that U.S. winter athletes would never again be as unprepared as they were in Calgary, where they would win a mere six medals.

One year later, Steinbrenner’s commission released a report calling for a streamlined USOC, more accountability from the governing bodies for the winter sports and increased funding for athletes.

The report, much of it paid for by Steinbrenner, concluded that “winning medals must always be the primary goal.”

“By Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998 and wherever the Games are in 2002, I think you’ll see some real differences,” Harvey Schiller, then USOC executive director, said later.

The year is 2002, the Winter Olympics are in Salt Lake City, and USOC officials indeed are eagerly anticipating some real differences. They predict U.S. athletes will win 20 medals, seven more than ever before in the Winter Games.

They are so committed to that number that Lloyd Ward, who became the USOC’s executive director last year, said bonuses for the Colorado Springs-based staff are tied to its realization.

But, according to estimates from various media outlets, the USOC’s number could be conservative. Predictions for U.S. medals range from Sports Illustrated’s 22 to the Associated Press’ 33.

In any case, the outlook is optimistic enough for Sandra Baldwin, USOC president, to declare this “the best U.S. Winter Olympic team ever. We are psyched.”

Looking back to that day in Calgary when Steinbrenner, a public-sector member of the USOC who later would become a vice president, was summoned, USOC spokesman Mike Moran said this week: “The Olympic overview commission was, in retrospect, the most important initiative we have ever undertaken. It established a path for our future that we are still following today.”

It has taken 13 years since the Steinbrenner report was adopted for the results to materialize.

The United States made strides in the medal count in the three Winter Olympics between Calgary and Salt Lake City, winning 11 medals in 1992 at Albertville, France; 13 in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway, and 13 in 1998 at Nagano, Japan, but factors beyond the USOC’s influence were largely responsible.

One was the new world order established after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.

East Germany was one of two Winter Olympic superpowers and, as expected, unified Germany is even more dominant, although there are signs that could change in the future. The Germans won 29 medals in 1998 and are expected to again lead the medal standings here with as many as 34.

But athletes from republics of the former Soviet Union are more challenged as the sports structure that had been controlled and heavily funded by the government deteriorates.

First participating in the Winter Olympics in 1956, the Soviet Union finished first in the medal count in seven of nine Games in which all of its republics competed under the hammer and sickle. The Soviets won a high of 29 medals in Calgary, 23 more than the United States.

Competing as the Unified Team in 1992, the republics combined for 23 medals. Under their own flags, they won 31 in 1994, led by Russia’s 23. That number decreased in 1998 to 24, including 18 by Russia. Projections are that the number will drop further this year.

A larger factor in the United States’ improved medal totals, however, was the increase in medals available as sports such as snowboard, freestyle skiing, short-track speedskating, curling and skeleton have been added to the program. In Calgary, 138 medals were awarded. In Salt Lake City, the number is 234.

U.S. athletes won five more medals in Albertville in 1992 than they had won four years earlier in Calgary, but four of them came in sports that weren’t on the program in 1988. So it’s not necessarily accurate to say that the United States improved much immediately after the Calgary Games.

Percentage-wise, the United States had its best Winter Games in 1980 in Lake Placid, where it won 8% of the medals available. The percentage dropped to an all-time low of 4.3% in Calgary, rose to 6.4% in Albertville, rose again to 7.2% in Lillehammer, then dropped again to 6.3% in Nagano.

But if the United States wins 20 medals this year as predicted by the USOC, the leap to 8.5% will be significant.

Moran said that the United States is finally beginning to reap the benefits from the funding program called for in Steinbrenner’s report that enables athletes to earn substantially more money than they did before 1988.

Until 1989, the most that any athlete had received in one year from the USOC was $2,500. In the last four years, through an $18-million USOC program called Podium 2002, eight athletes on this year’s Olympic team earned more than $100,000--with a high of $140,000--and 20 others earned between $60,000 and $90,000. Members of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, trying to defend the gold medal they won in Nagano, have earned an average of $106,000.

The USOC also has a job-opportunities program through its sponsors that enables athletes to earn extra income.

U.S. medalists here will receive $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze, up from $10,000, $7,500 and $5,000 when the USOC began the incentive program in 1992.

That is on top of money provided by the USOC and its various sports governing bodies for coaches, trainers, psychologists and, in the case of figure skaters, choreographers and costume designers. Also provided are funds for travel, housing and health insurance.

As a result of the money available, Ward said that U.S. athletes are able to remain in their sports longer, creating more experienced Olympic teams. This is the oldest U.S. Olympic winter team ever, with an average age of 26.

“We’re only doing the minimum,” Ward said. “Some of our elite athletes are receiving a substantial amount of money, but I’d like to see us spread it out more so that we can take care of more athletes. That might enable us to be more competitive across the board.”

The United States is traditionally strong in figure skating, Alpine skiing and speedskating. This year, it could win medals in men’s bobsled for the first time since 1956 and Nordic combined for the first time. It also has hopes in ski jumping, in which it hasn’t won a medal since 1924. But it still has no contenders in biathlon or cross-country skiing.

“We’re going to have some advantages here from the home field, like we did in 1980, Norway did in 1994 and Japan did in 1998,” Baldwin said.

“The challenge is to keep that going after Salt Lake City.”

Steinbrenner thought of that too. In order for Salt Lake City in 1991 to earn designation as the U.S. candidate in bidding for the 1998 Winter Olympics, it had to promise the USOC that it would build world-class winter sports venues--win or lose. It lost that time to Nagano but honored its commitment by beginning construction. It won the international bid four years later for 2002 and had most of the facilities completed by 2000.

“The Olympic overview commission was very smart to ask, ‘How can you be a winter sports power if you don’t have the facilities?’” Baldwin said. “Now we have a major training center in the West for our athletes in a major city, easily accessible by air, with jobs and more than one university. Salt Lake City fills all of our needs.

“I’m not saying we’re a winter sports power yet, but we’re here to let the world know we’re getting better.”