Since being named president of USA Gymnastics in 2005, Steve Penny has been working to strengthen the organization in and out of the gym. He entered the sports business after graduating from the University of Washington and then spent time with the Seattle Mariners, the Goodwill Games and Bob Walsh Enterprises, a Seattle sports marketing firm. Penny first worked with the Olympics as managing director of USA Cycling, and he served as a senior vice president of USA Gymnastics before assuming his current role. Penny spoke earlier this summer with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Tripp Mickle.

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Favorite vacation spot: Hawaii
Favorite type of music: Motown
Favorite book: “True at First Light,” by Ernest Hemingway
Favorite movie: “Rocky”
Favorite sporting event: Without question, the Olympics. The Kentucky Derby
is a close second.
Favorite athletes: Brooks Robinson, Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods, Lance
Armstrong
Favorite quotes: 1) Don’t be in a hurry to make a bad decision — Peter
Ueberroth; 2) I challenge you to make a difference in the world, to reach
higher and farther than you ever imagined — Earl Woods
Pet peeve: Bad service at a restaurant
Basic business or management philosophy: It is important to work with people
that you trust. Have good partners, and don’t be afraid to work hard.
Business advice: Listen to people you respect.
Biggest challenge: Convincing the sports marketplace that the Olympic
movement is relevant every day of our lives.

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What was your mission when you joined USA Gymnastics?
Penny: My mission has always been to keep elevating the stature and brand
recognition and relevance of the organization. The four primary goals are:
Win medals, grow the sport, increase visibility and provide outstanding
customer service.

How do you feel you’re doing along those metrics?
Penny: We’re achieving a lot of those goals. It’s important for us to win
medals in international competition. We’re doing well in that. In the areas
where we need to redevelop programs, we’ve restructured. In rhythmic and
trampoline, we’ve found new ways to develop our athletes. We’re working
closely with the USOC to increase the amount of support we’re giving to our
program. We’re working closely with sponsors to increase the visibility of
our program. A lot of our sponsors are really using gymnastics imagery and
our athletes to distinguish themselves. Our biggest focus right now is
expanding the base of our sport. Membership has been very steady with slight
increases.

What is the most pressing issue facing the organization in the buildup to
Beijing?
Penny: As we look at the Olympics, you want to be clicking on all cylinders.
You want your community behind you, you want your athletes ready, you want
to be doing everything you can to take advantage of the exposure the
Olympics provide. There’s nothing like it.

Does that put more urgency on Olympic years?
Penny: No. It’s just a heightened sense of awareness. We have 4,000
businesses around the sport of gymnastics in the United States. These club
owners, every year, are looking for ways to grow their business. We need to
be in touch with these clubs at a grassroots level to keep them thriving in
non-Olympic years. If we have a strong base, we’ll have a strong top.

Penny (right) watches the Olympic Trials with Mary Lou Retton (left).

This is your first Summer Games as the senior executive of gymnastics. How will it be different to be there with gymnastics than cycling?
Penny: I’ve been to two other Olympics with gymnastics in 2000 and 2004. In
total, it’s my eighth Olympic Games (five Summer, three Winter). The benefit
of having been to Olympic Games in another capacity is I know what to
expect. The difference in going as a CEO is you have a larger share of
ownership and a great deal of pride in what our athletes are hoping to
achieve and going to achieve.
In an administrative level, you go as just as an important part of the team
as anything else. You go with a series of plans so that you’re helping the
team and not distracting it. That’s our goal.

Some executives, like Bill Marolt of U.S. Ski and Snowboard, have given an expected medal count before the Games. Do you plan to?
Penny: We don’t. Our goal when we go into competition is to perform at our
highest level. If we do that, we’ll be successful. We want to win team
medals. We want to win individual medals. Our team preparation is designed
around that goal. … We don’t want the athletes focused on winning medals. We
want them focusing on hitting their routines. We know that if they hit their
routines, we’ll have success. You can’t ask an athlete to win a medal — only
to perform at their best. That’s the science behind our team programs.

Where will the most competition in Beijing come from and what is the
organization doing to keep its edge?
Penny: The Games are being held in China and China is clearly a dominant
country in our sport. If you look at the world championship results, there’s
not a lot of volatility in our sport on a year-to-year basis. You’re going
to have China, Romania, Germany, Russia, Ukraine on the men’s side,
Australia on the women’s side. The margin of error has gotten very narrow.
One small mistake can be the difference between a medal and no medal. You
scout other countries and go in prepared to do your best. Our athletes are
as prepared as anybody and we know what it takes to win. The most important
thing for us right now is keeping people healthy.

What stars do you expect to become household names after these Games? We
know some — Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson — are there any others?
Penny: We’ll see over the next few weeks. We have a tremendous depth of
talent. It wouldn’t be fair for me to point anyone out. … There are a lot of
names that can emerge. It’s just a matter of who will be best on a given
day.

What challenges exist for the sport beyond Beijing?
Penny: We’re in a good place in the United States. Growing the sport in the
U.S. is something we want to continue to do. Getting kids involved in
gymnastics and making sure we have a strong national development pipeline is
important. Keeping gymnastics strong at the collegiate level is really
important. We need to at least maintain if not grow those programs. Growing
our other disciplines — trampoline, rhythmic, acro — are some of the
challenges.

What about the overall Olympic movement? What challenges do you see on its
horizon beyond these Games?
Penny: The Beijing Olympics are a pivotal moment for the Olympic movement.
The fact that some of our sports will be televised live in prime time is
huge. It’s a huge opportunity to regain the relevance of the Olympic
movement in society today. The Olympic movement is important to society, and
a successful Beijing Olympics will reinforce that. We as a country need to
make every effort to bring the Games back to the United States. Bringing the
Games to Chicago [in 2016] is important. You become attached to the Games
when it’s in your country. You become infected by the Olympic spirit. It’s a
huge opportunity to demonstrate who you are as a society when you host the
Olympic Games.

USA Gymnastics signed over its media and marketing rights to Wasserman Media Group a year ago. How is the collaboration between you and the agency to date?
Penny: The strength of that partnership lies in the ability we have — along
with swimming and track and field — to provide scale in the marketplace.
When you look at the assets we have, the events we have and the assets
Wasserman has in new media, we have real scale. Not only that but we can
market it more efficiently, so that when we meet with corporate partners we
cannot only talk about our own individual sport but also these other sports.
Sharing ideas and sharing information has given us a chance to learn best
practices at a very high level. We’re sharing a lot of good stuff as it
relates to marketing materials.

How does that WMG relationship change USA Gymnastics business model for the future?
Penny: It provides more resources and opportunities to expand what we’re
able to offer corporate sponsors. The investment [Wasserman will] make in
looking at it as a business will only benefit the opportunities we’re able
to provide. We have a responsibility to serve our membership. That business
entity will be focused on increasing our commercial viability in the
marketplace. We’re partners and when you’re a partner with someone you look
out for each others interests. We’re going to manage relationships. We’re
going to provide best practices to partners. It’s a partnership and you work
to achieve mutual objectives. In the past, our agency relationships have
been one-dimensional. Now you have one that’s multifaceted that benefits
multiple sports. The biggest benefit we have is working with track and
swimming. We needed a partner who could see that working together we were
stronger than working on our own. In this sports marketplace, you need
scale.

You worked for the Seattle Mariners in public and community relations before
going to work for the Goodwill Games and USA Cycling. How does the Olympic
world differ from the world of professional sports from a business
perspective?
Penny: The private sector and corporate America is set up to serve financial
shareholders. It will change over time and adapt to serve those
shareholders. The Olympic movement is working on behalf of shareholders
working on a blood, sweat and tears investment. The passion that’s involved
in the Olympic movement is the fuel that drives the Olympic movement. The
Olympic movement doesn’t change as much over time. The sport of gymnastics
is the same. It’s evolved over time, but it hasn’t changed. If you love
gymnastics, it is always in your system. The challenge at times is getting
the Olympic movement to think a little more like corporate America.