USOC Outlines Its Overhaul Plan

A U.S. Olympic Committee task force on Friday issued its own plans for reforming USOC management, outlining a “complete overhaul of the structure,” calling it “essential” and urging that change be implemented “immediately and decisively.”

The USOC plan followed by one day a reform outline issued by a commission appointed by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

The plans differ somewhat but arrived at the same basic conclusions:

* The USOC’s mission needs to be spelled out clearly.

* A CEO ought to run the ship day to day.

* The elected volunteers, who have often clashed with the paid staff at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., ought to have a far more limited role.

* Actual oversight ought to shift from the current 124-member board of directors to a far smaller board.

The Senate panel said it ought to be nine members, the USOC task force 11.

The mission, each panel said: Win Olympic medals.

The Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on the reform plans. Thereafter, the Amateur Sports Act, the 1978 law that put the USOC in charge of the U.S. Olympic enterprise, probably will need to be amended.

Bill Martin, the acting USOC president, said he hoped Congress would not only move quickly but amend the law to make it clear that the mission to win medals, for instance, is “spelled out in big neon letters.”

The separate reform commissions were launched after the USOC’s chronic management turmoil erupted last winter into a storm that resulted in the resignations of the president, chief executive and several other officials. It was triggered by a conflict-of-interest inquiry centering on then-CEO Lloyd Ward.