USOC BOD Approves Creation Of New U.S. Olympic Foundation

The USOC BOD today approved the creation of a new U.S. Olympic Foundation, which will try to raise more than $35M in the coming years to support athletes and amateur sports. The approval highlighted a USOC board meeting at McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said the organization is 10 days away from hiring a chief development officer to run the foundation. He last week interviewed fewer than 10 finalists for the job. He said candidates had backgrounds in philanthropy, management and sports.

Blackmun also briefed the board on the USOC's effort to identify a U.S. bid city for the ‘24 Olympics. He said the organization is speaking with 10 cities about bidding for those Games. Dallas, Philadelphia and Baltimore-Washington have all publicly expressed interest, but Blackmun declined to confirm the interest of any cities. The USOC hopes to narrow the list to three cities by the end of the year and then select a city to put forward by the end of '14.