Hirshland was initially tasked with re-engaging USOC staff after the fallout of the Larry Nassar scandalGETTY IMAGES
USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland is "engaged in a balancing act," as six months into her tenure she is "learning as much as possible about the organization to feel confident in her decision-making, while responding to the urgency surrounding" the USOC at a time of uncertainty, according to a Q&A with Liz Clarke of the WASHINGTON POST. Hirshland said upon her arrival, USOC staff was "largely paralyzed by fear" from the fallout of the Larry Nassar scandal. Hirshland said she had to "figure out how to properly leverage that for the right reason." She called her first six months "really deep evaluation." Hirshland: "I walked in the door with the motive and motivation to make change." She said of the USOC's largely private financing model, “There is no question we don’t have the resources to do everything we’d like to do. I would love to be in a position to where every athlete who had the talent to compete in the Olympics or Paralympic level had the full resources to do that. ... We were given tools but not a house. So we have to take the tools we were given and we have to go generate the revenue for the organization." Meanwhile, she said the future bid process for hosting Olympic Games "looks different than it has historically." Hirshand: "It has to. ... When it works, it’s brilliant. But there are only so many cities in the world that have that infrastructure in place or are putting that infrastructure in place for the betterment of their community, regardless of the Olympics" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/12).
