USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland has announced a major reorganization of the committee’s senior staff. The reorganization includes the planned hiring of two entirely new positions: a Chief of Staff to assist Hirshland with key priorities and oversee international affairs and the LA28 partnership; as well as a Chief of Athlete Services, who will oversee all athlete safety, health, outreach and education programs. Notably, that position will oversee sports medicine, which previously had been under the sports performance division. Hirshland also will install a replacement for departing Chief External Affairs Officer Patrick Sandusky atop a newly combined communications and marketing division, and is close to hiring a new HR chief to replace Pam Sawyer, who left in August. Sandusky is leaving to take a job with MSG Co. Among the remaining execs, a big promotion will go to Rick Adams, chief of sports operations and Paralympics, who will now lead sport performance -- a role held by Alan Ashley until he was fired the day the Ropes & Gray report on the USA Gymnastics sex scandal was published. “Some of the restructuring we’re initiating is in order to better serve athletes and ensure their health and wellness is our top priority,” Hirshland wrote in an email to staff yesterday. "Some of the changes are a natural evolution of our current structure given the newly formed partnership with LA28."
BREAKDOWN OF NEW DIVISIONS: There are eight divisions whose directors will report directly to Hirshland under the new plan -- Athlete Services (to be hired); Sports Performance & NGB Services (led by Adams); Legal & Compliance, including NGB audits (led by General Counsel Chris McCleary); People/HR (to be hired); Business Operations, which now includes oversight of Olympic training centers (continued to be led by Kevin Penn); Communications & Marketing (to be hired); Development (Christine Walshe has been promoted to replacing departing CDO Jon Denney); and Chief of Staff (to be hired). The new communications and marketing division will combine the current PR, government relations and digital teams “with a renewed focus on brand marketing,” Hirshland wrote. Most of the USOC’s sponsorship functions are now under U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, the joint venture with LA28 led by Kathy Carter. The USOC announced some preliminary reorganization steps shortly after Hirshland started, including putting all athlete-facing programs under one division. Since then, Hirshland has completed her assessment of the overall structure, and the vacancies will give her an opportunity to build an exec team of her own. She cautioned in an email that some of the changes will not become effective until new execs are in place.
