USA Gymnastics Chief to Step Down

Bob Colarossi, who guided USA Gymnastics to unprecedented athletic success but was criticized by Olympic all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm for not doing more to fight the South Korean delegation’s challenge to Hamm’s victory at Athens, said Wednesday he would leave at the end of March to work for Los Angeles-based AEG.

Colarossi, 45, had been president and chief executive of USA Gymnastics since 1998. A spokesman for AEG said Colarossi would oversee properties the company was developing, some of which would be announced in the next few months. AEG’s majority shareholder is Philip Anschutz, the Denver billionaire whose holdings include the Kings, Staples Center and several Major League Soccer teams.

During Colarossi’s tenure, U.S. gymnasts won 56 world, Olympic and Pan American medals. That includes nine medals at Athens last summer, topped by all-around triumphs for Hamm and Carly Patterson and silver medals for the men’s and women’s teams.

He also helped bring USA Gymnastics more than $20 million in sponsor revenue for the fiscal years 1999 through 2004, a spokesman for the organization said.

Colarossi had been commuting every week from USA Gymnastics’ Indianapolis office to the Bay Area, where his wife, Tamara, owns a gym and coaches gymnastics. He rejected a four-year contract extension from USA Gymnastics in November and took a one-year deal with an escape clause.

Colarossi said his most satisfying achievement was helping unify gymnasts and officials after they returned from the 2000 Olympics with no medals and no unity.

“At some level, the results speak for themselves,” he said by phone Wednesday. “For me personally, it’s getting everyone to work together after Sydney. We were pointing in a bunch of different directions and there was a lot of self-interest and different agendas, and we got everyone to work as a team.”

Hamm and his twin, Morgan, could not be reached for comment. Their agent, Sheryl Shade, said, “I think they’re happy for him.”

Paul Hamm had contended Colarossi wasn’t forceful enough in fending off the South Korean federation’s effort to get a duplicate gold medal for Yang Tae Young, who was victimized by a judging error. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in October that Hamm could keep his gold medal.

Ron Froelich, chairman of USA Gymnastics, will head a search committee that will choose Colarossi’s successor. Colarossi will work with the committee.

Don Peters of Huntington Beach-based SCATS gym said Colarossi had improved the relationship between the national federation and grass-roots club programs.

“In the previous administration there was the attitude that, ‘Our job is to fill the U.S. national team and Olympic team under the umbrella of the USOC, and clubs are not our business,’ and with this administration that was not the case,” Peters said. “Bob recognized the importance of the clubs.”