Reporting from meetings of the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board and 115th Session in Prague, Czech Republic:
Despite widespread agreement that efforts to streamline and reform its organization are long overdue, the U.S. Olympic Committee is caught in a diplomatic squeeze as it tries to bring about change.
On one hand, the scandal-plagued USOC needs to pacify vocal critics inside the U.S. Congress, the body that gives it a legal right to exist. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., formed an independent panel to create a reform blueprint, which was released last month. The USOC also had its own panel at work. Both arrived at similar conclusions: end political bickering and rely more on independent directors.
But the proposals have placed the USOC in a stare-down with the International Olympic Committee, with whom it has long had strained relations. The need for diplomacy has never been greater because the USOC does not want to cripple efforts by New York's 2012 Olympic bid campaign — visible in Prague last week — to build support among IOC voters.
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| Rogge |
As the IOC executive board and full membership gathered in the Czech Republic, IOC President
Jacques Rogge said he would meet with a U.S. delegation this month to determine how USOC reform proposals, geared to a small, independent board of directors, can be tweaked to meet the requirements of the Olympic Charter, a century-old document.
"I am not pessimistic," Rogge said in a June 28 interview with SportsBusiness Journal. "I will meet with [reform panel member] Don Fehr ... and we will discuss this in a very constructive way. I think there are a lot of good things in this [set] of proposals that address a number of important issues."
The fundamental difference he said the IOC is having is that the Olympic Charter says national Olympic committees should have a voting majority of national governing bodies.
"And why are we saying that? Because ultimately a national Olympic committee [such as the USOC] is the emanation of national sports governing bodies. NGBs are organizing [Olympic] sport in a country, and no one else."
The 10-member Senate panel, co-chaired by baseball union leader Fehr, and the USOC's parallel study group want a tiny board of between nine and 11 people (down from the current 124) with a majority of independent directors. The IOC's position is that the charter requires the new board to be dominated by sports federation heads and athlete representatives, and that all the U.S. members of the IOC (three, in this case) have ex officio voting status.
Another member of the Senate-appointed reform panel, Harvey Schiller, said in Prague that he has been asked and might accompany Fehr to the meeting with Rogge. Schiller is not only the former USOC executive director and president of Turner Sports, but is a key volunteer leader behind the New York 2012 Olympic bid.
The IOC has made it clear this will not be a negotiation about the relevance of the Olympic Charter to the governance of the USOC. U.S. officials are the ones who must conform.
"That's correct," said IOC staffer Gilbert Felli, executive director overseeing Olympic Games operations worldwide. "The Olympic Charter is quite clear."
DIPLOMATIC DUO: The USOC had its newest international relations people in Prague to begin the long process of restoring American influence within the international Olympic community. Charles Battle, an Atlanta attorney and senior member of Atlanta's 1996 bid and organizing committees, has emerged as the USOC senior adviser for international relations, while staff member Greg Harney, recently back from a career hiatus, is the new director of international relations.
Harney said he recently accompanied USOC Vice President Paul George to Kuwait at the request of the IOC and the Olympic Committee of Asia, which offered to host talks about Iraq's sports governance and how it will train Olympic athletes for the 2004 Games. Harney is trying to clear the way for Iraqi athletes to travel to New York to compete in the July 14-20 World Archery Championships.
SAMSUNG'S CALL: IOC marketing director Michael Payne told reporters in Prague that Samsung has entered an agreement to join Coca-Cola as co-presenting sponsor of the 2004 Athens Olympic torch relay, which will feature a global route for the first time.
And it is clear that the IOC will not be shopping for a new wireless communications sponsor in the near future. Samsung owns the category through 2008.
"We should go beyond [2008]," said Seung-Kook Park, Samsung's vice president of international sports relations. He attended the Prague meetings in support of the 2010 Winter Olympic host candidacy of Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
