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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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IAAF Annuls Men’s 4×400m World Record
Posted August 12th, 2008 at 9:23 AM by Bob Ramsak
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports
The IAAF — track & field’s international governing body — announced today that it has annulled the men’s 4×400m world record following Antonio Pettigrew’s recent admission of doping.
Pettigrew, along with Jerome Young, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson clocked 2:54.20 at the 1998 Goodwill Games, breaking the previous mark by 0.09 seconds.
The record will now revert to 2:54.29 set by another U.S. squad –Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds and Johnson– at the 1993 World championships in Stuttgart.
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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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Pistorius Wins Appeal,
Debate Ensues
Posted May 20th, 2008 at 11:30 AM by Stephanie Lowe
Section: News & Results, Motivation, Success Stories, Track & Field, Olympics
After the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ban Friday by the International Association of Athletics Federations, double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius can compete in the Beijing Olympic Games. What does this mean for the future of track and field?
Pistorius, 21, is a South African athlete who has excelled in Paralympic competition. He holds Paralympic world records in the 100, 200 and 400-meter events. His strongest event is the 400, in which he has a personal-best time of 46.56 seconds.
The Olympic “A” standard in the 400 is 45.55 seconds. After the debate over allowing Pistorius to compete against able-bodied athletes, will he even make the team? If not, he still has a shot at the South African 4×400-meter relay team, which does not require a qualifying time. He also plans to compete at the 2008 Paralympic Games, in Beijing, Sept. 6-17.
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IOC Says Beijing Air Quality Mostly Acceptable
Posted March 17th, 2008 at 9:53 AM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics
The International Olympic Committee today released the results of a study done by its medical commission on the air quality in Beijing and how it might impact the health and performances of athletes at this summer’s Olympic Games. The report’s results were mixed.
“The findings indicate that, at Games time one year out, the health of athletes was largely not impaired,” read a statement from the IOC. “This finding is upheld by the fact that no health issues related to air quality were reported to the IOC by any of the team physicians who looked after athletes competing during the August 2007 test events.”
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Gebrselassie Could Make Beijing U-turn
Posted March 13th, 2008 at 2:00 PM by Hariz Siddiqui
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics
Ethiopian distance running star Haile Gebrselassie says he may compete over the marathon at the 29th Beijing Olympics if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) makes changes to the event’s venue and starting time.
On Monday, the world marathon record holder and former double Olympic 10000m champion announced that he will not take part in this year’s Olympic marathon citing Beijing’s pollution and fearing the aggravation of his own exercise-induced asthma.
But speaking on Wednesday, the 34-year old said, “I do not want to rule anything out at this point. This decision is not about Haile. It is about all athletes who will be competing. Our safety has to be protected.”
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Heart, Commitment, Integrity and Faith
Posted January 30th, 2008 at 6:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, SoundOFF, Columns, Olympics, Drugs In Sports
My recent post titled “Not the Triumph, But the Struggle?,” about Oscar Pistorius and the IAAF’s decision not to allow him to compete in the sport of track & field, generated some interesting feedback from one of our long-time readers.
Jim Fortner of Jim2.net, in his reply to my article that accuses the IAAF of being unfair, heartless, discriminatory and elitist, wrote that “this issue is not a humanistic one. It is a question of fairness in competition and ensuring a level playing field.”
Mr. Fortner also wrote that “this kind of emotional article bashing the IAAF for doing its job is pointless and contributes nothing to the real issue of what is and is not fair and suitable in athletic competitions.”
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Not the Triumph,
But the Struggle?
Posted January 28th, 2008 at 10:45 PM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, SoundOFF, Columns, Olympics
The Olympic Creed states that:
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
Oscar Pistorius would attest to that creed, perhaps better than any Athlete who will be allowed to compete in Beijing this summer. So it’s a shame that a couple of Italian Olympic officials missed a golden opportunity Monday during Pistorius’ visit to Milan to exemplify those ideals by pleading the South African sprinter’s case to the heartless, elitist IAAF. The Associated Press reports that a couple of IOC members instead stated that “the IOC had no jurisdiction in the dispute and it was up to the governing body to issue technical standards.”
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TFS News Briefs: 12/11/07
Posted December 11th, 2007 at 3:38 PM by Jimmie R. Markham
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs
Possible ‘Doomdsay’ Scenario for Honolulu Marathon Results
Honolulu Marathon Association president Jim Barahal admitted that hundreds or even thousands of runners may have been given incorrect split and/or finish times. Even worse (and he called it the “doomsday scenario”) up to 3,500 runners may not have been recorded at all. The errors may have been caused by the event’s new timing system. Read more at: [Honolulu Advertiser]
IOC Delays Decision on Jones’ Sydney Medals
The IOC was expected to make a decision on Monday about redistributing Marion Jones’ 5 Sydney medals (3 gold, 2 bronze) but they have decided to delay that decision to study the potential ramifications that it would have on other athletes, like Jones’ relay teammates, who haven’t tested positive for steroids. Read more at: [Coos Bay World]
Norwich Union London Grand Prix Expands to 2 Days
The Norwich Union London Grand Prix, Britain’s largest track meet, is set to become even bigger by expanding to 2 days. Scheduled for July 25th and 26th, 2008, it will be the last major meet before the Beijing Olympics begin 2 weeks later. Read more at: [IAAF]
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