USATF's Logan Will Take Time To Evaluate Report, Make Changes
USATF CEO Doug Logan, who asked for a review of USA Track & Field's performance programs, said that he would "take a couple of weeks to digest the report and solicit opinions before taking action on the recommendations, some of which would require board action and bylaw changes," according to Amy Shipley of the WASHINGTON POST. Logan said that he hoped the impartial panel that conducted the review would "reconvene once a year for the next three years to evaluate progress." Logan: "This report has and will produce a significant amount of discomfort. ... At the end of the day, this is the only way this institution will be able to ... realize its potential." In addition to the suggested changes, the report also "chided USATF for allowing shoe companies and agents to effectively take over the management" of the sport. The report said, "American athletes as a group do not conduct themselves as true professionals, and USATF does not hold them to professional standards." Shipley notes the report "caps what has been a difficult decade for USATF, which has struggled to maintain its standing as the world's most decorated track program while being battered by doping revelations and seemingly declining interest" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/10).
REPORT CARD: In N.Y., Lynn Zinser notes the report called for the athletes to sign contacts with USATF in which they "agreed to go along with long-term goals set by the organization" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/10). In Indianapolis, David Woods notes the report also "included embarrassing details such as relay members heading to the start without bib numbers and an athlete clamoring for a TV set in the Olympic village" at last summer's Beijing Games. The report did not "include a plan for elevating the sport's profile, confining recommendations to improving performance" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2/10). Logan said some of the findings in the report were "jarring and shocking." Logan said the review panel "pulled no punches, but has done a great service to the organization with regard to giving us a road map for the future" (AROUNDTHERINGS.com, 2/9). However, long-distance running group Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar said the report was an "overreaction to a couple of dropped batons, some field event guys who didn't do so well as they should have" and U.S. Olympic distance runner Bernard Lagat, "who should have medaled, and didn't" (Portland OREGONIAN, 2/10).
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