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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

Dysfunction Run Amuck
Part III: USOC Mandates and
A Question of Authority

Posted November 25th, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

This is the third article in a seven-part series titled “Dysfunction Run Amuck: USA Track & Field and the Need for Change”.
In case you missed them, make sure to go back and read part one & part two, as well. To view a publication timeline for the entire series, please scroll to the bottom of this article.

From 2003 to 2005, under pressure from the U.S. Congress to clean up its act, the scandal-ridden United States Olympic Committee (USOC) took a number of drastic steps to address its own dysfunction. Among other measures, USOC reduced its board of directors from 123 members to 11.

USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan told Track & Field News (November, 2008), “the USOC itself went through a very uncomfortable internal restructuring process.” He added, “The Congress required USOC to modify the way they did things, and to restructure [itself] and to modernize into a body that can do the business of sports in the 21st century. They went through huge changes on the governance and management sides, and they have required other governing bodies to follow suit.”

Former USOC General Counsel and sports law expert Mark Muedeking contends that the USOC, “recognized that there needed to be reform and that USOC needed to lead the way … to franchise that reform to the national governing bodies that they regulated.”

But why was reform necessary?

Muedeking, now a partner at the global law firm DLA Piper, added that if money is being wasted, if there are ethics issues, or if there is mismanagement or dysfunction at the national governing body (NGB) for a particular sport, “Then it gives everyone in the Olympic movement a black eye.”
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Dysfunction Run Amuck
Part II: How Did We Get Here?

Posted November 21st, 2008 at 5:03 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

This is the second article in a seven-part series titled “Dysfunction Run Amuck: USA Track & Field and the Need for Change”.
Click here to read part one and to view a publication timeline for the entire series.

Before plunging headlong into the tenuous situation facing USA Track & Field and the areas of dysfunction that threaten its future, it is important to take a step back and put everything into context by examining the relevant history of the organization, track & field, and the amateur sports movement.

One-hundred-and-fourteen years ago a French nobleman named Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, had a notion that moral and social fibers of young people would be fortified if they competed in amateur sports. That vision led him to found the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which of course, resulted in the founding of the Modern Olympic Games.

The sport of track & field has been the premier Olympic event ever since the first Olympic Games, which were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. As such, it exemplified de Coubertin’s ideal of amateurism, and was jealously guarded for decades by the IOC. For example, Olympic champion Jim Thorpe was famously stripped of his 1912 Stockholm Olympic medals once the IOC discovered that he had been paid for competing in professional baseball earlier that year.
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Doug Logan Named CEO of USA Track & Field

Posted July 18th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The USA Track & Field Board of Directors on Thursday approved top sports executive Doug Logan, the former Commissioner, President and CEO of Major League Soccer, as its next CEO. A bilingual sports and entertainment leader with a proven track record of generating long-term sponsor partnerships, television outreach and high fan attendance, Logan and MLS in 1996 were named Sports Industrialist of the Year by Sports Business Daily.

Logan led MLS during its enormously successful 1995 start-up through 1999. He orchestrated the launch of the league’s inaugural season, averaging attendances of over 17,000 per game, highlighted by two single-game attendance figures over 85,000. With an annual budget of $90 million, MLS under Logan’s leadership generated $120 million in multiple-year sponsorship commitments from Nike, AT&T, adidas, Puma, Umbro, Honda, MasterCard, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch and Bic.

Considered the country’s highest-ranking Hispanic-American in sports management, Logan transformed MLS television contracts from a time-buy to co-ventures, negotiating five-year broadcasting agreements with ABC, ESPN and Univision that more than doubled the number of national MLS games on the air. He also directed the expansion of the league in 1998, increasing the asset value of the league from $5 million per team to $20 million per team.
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USATF To Combine Offices with Other Olympic Sports

Posted April 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

The yet-to-be-selected CEO to replace Craig Masback at USA Track & Field will be treated to new office space as the U.S. governing body for athletics will be moving out of their offices at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis in advance of its demolition this summer. Moreover, USATF will share space with the U.S. Olympic governing bodies for diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming which are also based in Indianapolis. The four organizations will share 32,000 square feet of space at 132 East Washington Street.
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Masback to leave USATF after 10 years of service, will join Nike in Global Business Affairs

Posted January 9th, 2008 at 7:00 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

USA Track & Field CEO Craig A. Masback is departing USATF after leading the organization for more than 10 years, USATF President Bill Roe announced Wednesday. Masback will become Director of Business Affairs for Nike’s Global Sports Marketing Division and will transition to his new position over coming weeks and months.

In his decade of service as CEO of USATF, Masback has helped oversee the rebirth of the organization. Shortly after taking over as CEO, Masback and USATF established the nationally televised Visa Championship Series and began an Elite Athlete Services Department that revolutionized governing body/athlete relations.

Masback also worked with the organization’s Board of Directors to institute one of the sporting world’s first “Zero Tolerance” anti-doping policies, and vastly expanded the grass-roots services provided by the National Office. Since 1997, Team USA also has steadily seen its medal tally at World Championships and Olympic Games grow from an average of 17-19 to 25 medals or more at the last Olympics and last two World Championships.
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Eugene set to host 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and ‘09, ‘11 Championships

Posted December 13th, 2007 at 7:40 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced their intent to host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field in Eugene, Oregon, USATF CEO Craig Masback announced Wednesday. The announcement was made at an afternoon press conference on the University of Oregon campus.

Eugene, which next year will host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field, also will host the 2009 and 2011 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Masback announced.

Site of the 1972, ‘76, ‘80 and 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field and the 1999 and 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field will be the site of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where the roster for Team USA will be selected for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In 2009, Team USA will select its roster for the 2009 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Berlin, Germany, and 2011 will see the selection of the American squad for the 2011 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
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James Li named Nike
Coach of the Year

Posted November 28th, 2007 at 3:11 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

James Li, who guided Bernard Lagat to a history-making performance at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships in Osaka, Japan, and an American record indoors, has been named the 2007 Nike Coach of the Year by USA Track & Field.

He will receive his award Saturday, December 1, at the 2007 Jesse Owens Awards and Hall of Fame Induction ceremony, held in conjunction with the USATF Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The American record holder over 1,500m, Lagat became the first man to win the 1,500/5,000m double at World Outdoors, and the first American ever to medal in the 5,000 at Worlds. Earlier in the 2007 season, Lagat broke the American record indoors at 3,000 meters.
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Indoor Visa Championship Series to Head West with
USA vs. The World at
“Run for the Dream”

Posted November 14th, 2007 at 5:05 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The Visa Championship Series, USA Track & Field’s signature series of domestic track meets, will include an indoor stop in California for the first time next Martin Luther King Day (Monday, January 21) when USA vs. the World at Run for The Dream kicks off the 2008 Indoor Visa Championship Series.

The USA vs. The World event will feature top U.S. and international athletes competing in seven individual events each for men and women, plus the 4×400m relay, in a scored, team competition. Team USA athletes will take on a squad of International All-Stars in the first team-scored meet in Visa Championship Series history.

First held in 2006, Run for the Dream will take place at the Save Mart Center on the campus of Fresno State University. A new, 160-yard track is being built specifically for the facility and will make its international debut at Run for the Dream, a meet organized and directed by USATF’s 2003 Nike Coach of the Year and Fresno State head coach Bob Fraley.
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TFS News Briefs: 11/12/07

Posted November 12th, 2007 at 1:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

Galen Rupp: “I’m starting to come around”
Galen Rupp, in only his second cross-country race of the season (he had started his training cycle again after competing in the World Championships), finished 1st to lead the Oregon Ducks to a 1st-place team finish at the NCAA West Regional cross-country championships. He is considered to be a favorite to win NCAA Championships this coming weekend. Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]

Craig Masback: “All signs point to [’08] being the best Olympic Trials ever”
Craig Masback has written a guest article on Oregon’s The Register-Guard website, explaining how the preparations for the 2008 Olympic Trials are coming along. Set to begin on June, 27th 2008 and lasting until July 6th, 2008, Masback writes that, “The pieces are falling into place to meet the Eugene ‘08 objective of making this Olympic Trials the most athlete-friendly and fan-friendly in history.” Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]

IAAF Ratifies New World Records
Haile Gebrselassie’s 2:04:26 marathon at the September 30th Berlin Marathon and Lornah Kiplagat’s 1:06:25 half-marathon (as well as her 1:02:57 20K en route to the half-marathon in Udine, Italy on October 14th at the 2nd IAAF World Road Running Championships) along with several other world records, have been ratified by the IAAF. Read more at: [IAAF]
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TFS News Briefs: 11/08/07

Posted November 8th, 2007 at 2:23 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

Craig Masback on Ryan Shay: What More Can We Do?
In a USA Today article Christine Brennan asks USATF CEO Craig Masback the question: What responsibilities, if any, do sports governing bodies have in preventing tragedies such as this? And now that this has happened, a death in the Olympic marathon trials, should anything change?
Masback answers: “We’re really looking to the medical community to answer that question. If there’s something we can do that would reliably stop something like this from happening, we would absolutely do it. Read more at: [USA Today]

Oregon X-C Coach Lananna on NCAA West Regionals: Top Two For Both Men and Women
University of Oregon Cross-Country coach Vin Lananna has an ambitious goal for his Ducks this coming Saturday: “We’ll run what we have to run in order to be in the top two for both the men and women.” A top-2 finish would guarantee both the men’s a women’s team a slot in the upcoming NCAA Cross-Country Championships. Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]

Honor System for 2,300 NYC Marathoners
A timing glitch caused by 3 minutes of frequency interference affected 2,300 participants (some 5.8% of the total runners) in last Sunday’s New York City Marathon. Organizers are now relying on the honor system to get the affected runners to tell them how long it took them to cross the starting line. Read more at: [Bloomberg.com]
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