USOC Takes Steps Toward Self-Reform

Senior U.S. Olympic Committee officials, moving to try to “get our house in order” before Congress assumes the task, on Sunday jump-started the process of studying potential reforms and launched the process of electing a new president.

Wrapping up a weekend meeting that saw chief executive Lloyd Ward ordered to forfeit a $184,800 bonus -- but get to keep his job -- in the wake of an ethics-related inquiry, the USOC’s acting president, Bill Martin, said that the policy-making executive committee had appointed an internal task force to study such issues as “ethical behavior” and “governance and organizational structure,” with recommendations due by April.

Congress is scheduled to hold a second hearing Thursday to look into the causes -- and possible solutions -- of the USOC’s leadership tumult. The first was held Jan. 28.

Influential senators have signaled the USOC may need a wholesale makeover and said that the 1978 Amateur Sports Act, which gave the USOC authority for Olympic affairs, may need to be revisited.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) has called for Ward to resign.

The USOC has had four presidents and four CEOs since 2000.

The action Sunday comes amid yet more signs of instability. Chief marketing officer Toby Wong -- whom Ward hired last year -- has finalized a severance agreement, negotiated by lawyers. A source familiar with the situation said Wong was prompted to leave by what was described as the “dysfunctionality of the place” and “a horrible work environment,” declining to elaborate.

Wong’s Houston-based attorney, Philip Hilder, would say only, “Toby’s excited about returning back to the corporate world.”

Meantime, USOC officials acknowledged that the Titan Games, a mini sports festival dreamed up by Ward and scheduled for this weekend in San Jose, are now projected to lose money -- a “little short of break even,” Ward said. Detailed financial estimates were not immediately available.

USOC vice presidents Bill Stapleton and Frank Marshall will chair the internal reform commission, Martin said. Another in-house panel was charged Sunday with establishing guidelines and a time frame for a presidential election. Martin, athletic director at the University of Michigan, has said he will not run.

Marty Mankamyer, elected president in August, resigned last week in the wake of the ethics inquiry into Ward’s conduct. Five other USOC officials have also resigned.

Ward directed USOC staff to help a Detroit company with ties to his brother that was trying to win a contract for the 2003 Pan American Games, creating what a USOC ethics board report called the “appearance of a conflict of interest.” No deal was struck.