Baldwin Resigns as USOC President

Sandra Baldwin resigned Friday as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, a day after admitting to discrepancies in her USOC biography, including the listing of a doctorate in American literature that she does not possess.

Baldwin, 62, of Mesa, Ariz., the first female president in USOC history, tendered her resignation following a lengthy conference call involving the USOC’s policy-making executive committee. The call settled nothing. It was, however, made clear that the issues would be referred to the USOC’s ethics committee, thus prolonging, possibly for months, the uncertainty over her status. Baldwin chose instead to resign.

Her resignation propelled the USOC into turmoil. Even as USOC Secretary Marty Mankamyer, a Colorado Springs, Colo., businesswoman, became acting president, factions supporting different candidates began jockeying for position. No timetable was set for the selection of the next president.

The resignation also sent ripples through the International Olympic Committee, whose ruling executive board convened a meeting here today with the 199-nation Assn. of National Olympic Committees.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said Baldwin’s resignation was “the dignified thing to do,” but also said, “It’s a loss for the USOC and for sport.”

Baldwin had been elected an IOC member in February, at the Salt Lake City Winter Games, by virtue of her status as USOC president; by resigning her USOC role, she loses her IOC position.

The United States has three other IOC members, all based in Southern California--Anita DeFrantz, Jim Easton and Bob Ctvrtlik.

Mexico’s Mario Vazquez Rana, who has been president of the Assn. of National Olympic Committees since 1979 and had recently made Baldwin a vice president of that group, said, “In any other country, she could save herself. But not the United States.”

Among those believed to be interested in succeeding Baldwin is Bill Hybl, her predecessor as USOC president and IOC member. He stepped down as USOC president at the end of his term in December 2000, but held on to the IOC seat until last February.

Asked Friday if he would be interested again in being an IOC member, Hybl, a Colorado Springs businessman and politician, said, “That’s a decision for the International Olympic Committee.”

Paul George, a Boston attorney who narrowly lost the 2000 USOC presidential election to Baldwin, said he would “definitely consider” running anew.

Some USOC sources called Friday for the return of Harvey Schiller, a USOC executive director in the 1990s. Schiller, now in business in New York, said, “It’s important to pick the right person. I think they have a lot of qualified candidates. I haven’t been part of Olympic stuff for a while. Right now I’m focusing on New York.”

DeFrantz, who, like the two other remaining U.S.-based IOC members also serves on the USOC’s executive committee, said, “I believe an Olympian ought to lead us.” A bronze medalist in rowing at the 1976 Montreal Games, she was quick to add, “I’m not proposing myself. But there are many Olympians who could lead our organization.”

Some on Friday suggested Michael Lenard, a 1984 Olympian in team handball, now a Los Angeles businessman. Lenard ran against Hybl for the presidency in 1996, losing by a slim margin. He has long been close to Baldwin and declined to comment Friday on his plans, saying, “To be honest, I’m just sitting here kind of numb.”

Baldwin, an Arizona real estate executive, was elected USOC president in December 2000, succeeding Hybl.

Baldwin’s USOC biography says she graduated from Colorado University in 1962 with an English degree. In fact, she graduated that year from Arizona State. She spent her freshman and sophomore years in Boulder, then moved back to Arizona, where she is from, and finished college at Arizona State.

The bio also says she earned a doctorate in American literature in 1967 from Arizona State. She did not earn the degree, she said Thursday. She said she never completed her dissertation.

Questions emerged about Baldwin’s biography only after a student at Colorado, inspired by an on-campus talk a few weeks ago, decided to write a feature for the school’s alumni magazine about Baldwin--only to find out she had not graduated from the university.

Baldwin had concluded over a whirlwind few days that she had little choice but to resign--because, as she was told, significant discrepancies in one’s self-supplied biography were at odds with a movement that promotes integrity and ethics.

She hesitated, however, out of concerns that resigning would undo her strategy of reaching out to other national Olympic committees, particularly within the Western Hemisphere, and that her departure would leave the USOC in the hands of political opponents.

She issued a statement Friday through the USOC saying, “I accept full responsibility for the mistakes I have made.”

Lloyd Ward, a former chief executive at Maytag, became USOC chief executive in October after Baldwin had pressed for his hiring.

Ward left the USOC’s Colorado Springs headquarters for a weekend at his Florida home shortly after telling the staff about Baldwin’s resignation.

Many connected with the USOC apparently were taking a fresh look at their resumes.

Herb Perez, a member of the executive committee who won a gold medal in taekwondo at the 1992 Barcelona Games, said, “I’m going through my bio right now. You want to know the truth? Everybody is.”

He added, “The good news about being an Olympic gold medalist--that’s a fact.”