USOC making 'em shape up

US Bobsled and Skeleton isn't the only dysfunctional sports federation being run by the US Olympic Committee. The USOC also has taken over team handball and modern pentathlon since last fall and has been overseeing taekwondo for more than two years.

The takeovers essentially are makeovers, which involve everything from a new constitution and bylaws to a rejiggered (generally downsized) board and audits leading to better financial controls. Once things have been shaped up, which takes between 12 and 24 months, the committee usually hands the reins back to the federation.

Troubled national governing bodies, as they're called, either can request ``remediation" or run the risk of being decertified, which is what happened to team handball. Either way, the USOC calls the shots, backed by federal law and the threat of cutting off funding if the NGBs balk.

Though the bobsled/skeleton federation asked for remediation, it had little choice since the USOC had pulled its six-figure subsidy after last winter's doping and sexual harassment problems. The takeover/makeovers are a prime example of the committee's more assertive stance in all things Olympic, including bidding for the Games. That's the USOC's next big decision, after its top brass sat down this month with the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia to discuss 2016.

``We were very candid and direct with them," said spokesman Darryl Seibel. If the committee does decide to bid, it'll have to make its choice by summer of next year.

What will happen if FIFA, which runs international soccer, doesn't adopt the world anti-doping code when it meets in Germany next month? The sport likely will be dropped from the Olympics and the federation eventually could be barred from having tournaments in countries like Great Britain, Canada, and Sweden, which have adopted the code. ``There will be consequences," says WADA chief Dick Pound. ``A whole bunch of very bad things could happen. FIFA knows what it has to do." Federation president Sepp Blatter has indicated that soccer, which has been dragging its feet on doping for years, finally will fall in line . . . Hyperbaric chambers, which are believed to help athletes in endurance sports boost their blood's oxygen-carrying ability, could be the next item on WADA's banned list. What the agency has to do is determine whether the chambers are indeed performance-enhancing (WADA's ethics committee says they're ``contrary to the spirit of sport") and whether the test for telltale higher hematocrit levels is sufficiently reliable . . . Why won't Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell, the world's co-fastest humans at 9.77, run against each other in the 100 meters at Sunday's Nike Prefontaine Classic even though they're in the same race? Because they're contractually bound (for many pounds sterling) to go head-to-head at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Gateshead June 11. So they'll be in separate eight-man heats at the Pre, with the winner determined by time. It'll be the first time the rivals have been on the same track, at least, since last July in London, when Powell pulled up with a groin injury and missed the rest of the season. Though Gatlin was annoyed by the delayed (five days later) upward revision of his world-record 9.76 (rounded up from 9.766), he'd already predicted that he'd get even lower. ``I think I can go faster -- 9.74, 9.73," he said. Meanwhile, it'll be a holiday for hurdlers at the Pre, when Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang , world titlist Ladji Doucoure, and former Olympic champ Allen Johnson knock heads in the men's 110 meters and Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes takes on world titlist Michelle Perry in the women's 100 meters. The men's 400 event features Bershawn Jackson and James Carter, who went 1-2 in the global meet.

Rashid Ramzi's 3:32.34 in the 1,500 at Sunday's Adidas Track Classic in Carson, Calif., was the fastest ever on US soil, bettering Sebastian Coe's 3:32.53, which won the 1984 Olympic gold up the road at the Coliseum. Bernard Lagat, held off at the tape, posted the fastest time (3:32.94) by an American at a domestic all-comers meet, eclipsing Jim Ryun's 3:33.1 in 1966. Ramzi, the world champion from Bahrain, will face Lagat again at the Pre and also will run in the Reebok Grand Prix in New York a week from Saturday . . . Sweden, which became the first country to win both the Olympic and world men's ice hockey titles in the same year when it bounced the Czechs, 4-0, Sunday, hadn't won the crown since 1998. Having half a dozen Turin gold medalists didn't hurt, nor did Detroit's early playoff exit, since four Red Wings were on the roster. The Americans, who took their worst quarterfinal flogging (6-0) in 14 years from the Swedes, had no Olympians on the roster. Neither did the Canadians, who were hammered, 5-0, by the Finns for the bronze medal and missed the podium for the first time in four years. The biggest flop, though, was by the Russians, who had six Turin veterans (including wonderchild Alexander Ovechkin) and were beaten by the Czechs in the quarters. New head of the Russian federation, by the way, is Vladislav Tretiak, the goaltender who led the Big Red Machine to three Olympic gold medals (and one notable silver) and 10 world titles . . . Figure skating's usual end-of-quadrennium exodus is underway. Besides Tiffany Scott, the Hanson native who announced her retirement last week, fellow pairs skater Kathryn Orscher, Tim Goebel, and Amber Corwin also are hanging up the skates, and Michael Weiss is expected to join them. Taking at least a year off are Matt Savoie, who's headed for Cornell Law School, and ice dancers Jamie Silverstein and Ryan O'Meara. No announcement yet from Michelle Kwan, who's still pondering her options after a lost season . . . Los Angeles, which hosted the Olympic-year nationals in 2002, will be the US bidder for the pre-Olympic figure skating world championships in 2009. Since it will have been six years (roughly the usual rotation) since Washington played host, the US likely will get the nod when the International Skating Union chooses in early July. Still up for grabs, with Boston a possible site, are the '09 nationals.

Olympic speedskating champion Joey Cheek, who had his pick of top schools, is headed for Princeton, where he'll be the fastest man on skates since the legendary Hobey Baker . . . Janet Evans may have lost her 400-meter freestyle world record (4:03.85) from the 1988 Olympics to France's Laure Manaudou (4:03.03), but she still owns swimming's two oldest global marks -- 15:52.10 in the 1,500 free (March 1988) and 8:16.22 in the 800 free (August 1989) -- and nobody is close to breaking either. By comparison, no men's record predates 2000 . . . The US has five women's entries, including world medalists in sculler Michelle Guerette and the lightweight double of Julie Nichols and Renee Hykel, in this weekend's World Cup rowing opener in Munich. Nichols-Hykel and the pair of Anna Mickelson and Megan Cooke already have made the team for this summer's global regatta in England, which may also include the men's pair of Josh Inman and Brett Newlin and the double of Wyatt Allen and Matt Hughes. Both crews met the time standard while winning last weekend's trials in New Jersey and have until July 12 to accept their spots . . . Big change for this weekend's US men's trials for this fall's world wrestling championships in China. The national champion no longer gets an automatic bye into the finals unless he's also a returning global medalist in freestyle or in the top five in Greco-Roman. That leaves only Tolly Thompson (in freestyle) and Justin Ruiz (Greco) with a free pass.

Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, and wire services was used in this report.