USOPC Reviewing Olympic Commission Report

A panel charged with reviewing the Olympic structure in the United States is calling for Congress to consider wide-ranging changes in a report that United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Sarah Hirshland called “helpful perspective on many topics that our movement has been evaluating and discussing for many years.”

The Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics & Paralympics, established by Congress in 2020, released its 277-page report two weeks ago. Hirshland said she will be in Washington in the coming weeks to discuss the findings.

Most of the immediate attention following its release was the recommendation of government funding of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which was established in 2017 to oversee sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports. It receives around $20 million annually from the USOPC and its sports affiliates. U.S. Center for SafeSport Chief Executive Officer Ju’Riese Colon said the current funding level “is insufficient to meet the growing demands on the Center.”

The center has long been dealing with an overload of cases and has been criticized for taking too long to resolve them. The report published polling information, previously reported by The Associated Press, that found 25.4% of 1,752 respondents to a commission survey found the SafeSport Center to be “not so effective” or “not effective at all.” Another 41.4% said it was only “somewhat effective.”

The panel criticized the USOPC as an organization that would benefit from increased oversight and a streamlining of its mission. It seized on executive compensation and called for independence of the Team USA Athletes Commission, which runs under the umbrella of the USOPC; an overhaul of governance processes; better access for Paralympic athletes; and a rethinking of the U.S. bid process for Olympic Games.

“These are important conversations to have today and to continue as we look forward,” Hirshland said Thursday. “Over the past five years we’ve undergone a journey of transformation and growth. We have navigated through a sea of challenges and have risen through them stronger and with a renewed unwavering commitment of our mission.”

The commission suggested some changes might be easier if a new federal office under the Department of Health and Human Services was created to oversee grassroots sports that would presumably free up the USOPC to focus on supporting high-performance athletes and Olympic teams.

“It is time for Congress to accept that, while we will never have a ‘ministry of sport’ model in this country, the federal government has more of a role to play in ensuring safety, equity, accessibility, and accountability in sports than it has so far acknowledged and accepted,” the report said.

It also, interestingly, recommended future Games bids to consider the simultaneous organizing of the Olympics and Paralympics. “Another concept worth exploring is to work with the IOC and the IPC to allow two different American cities from the same region to host the Olympics and Paralympics concurrently,” the report said, adding “it is time to think differently—and strategically—about the kind of Olympics and Paralympics that Americans want to host and encourage for the future.”

“We’re reviewing the recommendations put forth by the commission,” USOPC Board Chair Gene Sykes said Thursday. “It’s a very substantive, very thorough, comprehensive report with many recommendations. All of the report deserves attention, study and consideration by us. … We want to make all of the experience of Olympic and Paralympic sport more meaningful for more people.”