By naming former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue yesterday as chair of an independent advisory committee to evaluate its size, structure, and operations, the US Olympic Committee’s board of directors essentially acknowledged what critics have been saying for months: that the downsized group merely created a new set of governance issues.
The extreme makeover, which chopped a fragmented and often fractious mob of 125 members to a cozy 11 in 2003 (and it is now at nine), made it much easier for a half-dozen to ram through major changes, like the bum’s rush given this year to chief executive Jim Scherr, who was replaced by board member Stephanie Streeter. No matter what Tagliabue’s panel recommends, the board already has decided to become more transparent, posting agendas and meeting information on the USOC website.
Meanwhile, the nine-member search group doesn’t have much time to find its next CEO. With Streeter scheduled to step down by year’s end, the USOC and global search firm Spencer Stuart have barely a month and a half to find someone who can be in place in time for February’s Winter Games in Vancouver.
Though the pay is attractive (Streeter is making a reported $560,000 base salary) the wish-list résumé as described by chairman Larry Probst is daunting: corporate corner-office skills, international sports background, multiple languages, and frequent overseas travel.
By definition, that makes for an abbreviated field of candidates, and some of the obvious ones who head domestic Olympic sports bodies like track and field (Doug Logan), swimming (Chuck Wielgus) and gymnastics (Steve Penny) may want to stay put.
The challenge for the search group, which includes Probst and fellow board members Bob Bowlsby and Mike Plant, is to find someone quickly who will stay for the long term. After running through six CEOs during the past decade, the committee can’t afford another short-timer.
Seats available
It’s not too late to obtain tickets for the Vancouver Games. CoSport, the USOC’s official agent, has seats available for the women’s ice hockey semifinals and bronze-medal match as well as non-US preliminary games for both genders and the closing ceremonies. There also are hospitality packages that include lodging and a ticket assortment. To order, check out
www.cosport.com . . . Preparations for the Games are on track. All venues have been completed and tested, rooms and buses have been procured, and the Olympic village has been turned over to the organizers . . . Though
Michael Phelps finished behind the curve in Stockholm, missing two of three finals at the World Cup short-course meet, he was ahead of the curve by wearing the old-school type suit that will be required next season when the high-tech versions worn by his rivals will be banned.
Ice break
Sasha Cohen’s withdrawal from this weekend’s Skate America competition in Lake Placid means the Olympic silver medalist will have gone nearly a full quadrennium without competing if and when she turns up for the January national championships that will determine the two-woman team for Vancouver. Cohen, whose last outing was at the 2006 World Championships, has been bothered by tendinitis in her right calf, which also kept her out of the Grand Prix opener in Paris last month. Cohen will be replaced by Turin teammate
Emily Hughes, whose last international assignment was a year ago. She will be up against countrywomen
Rachael Flatt and
Alexe Gilles as well as Korean world champion
Kim Yu Na. World champion
Evan Lysacek,
Brandon Mroz, and
Ryan Bradley will be the US men’s entrants, with
Keauna McLaughlin-
Rockne Brubaker,
Brooke Castile-
Ben Okolski, and
Amanda Evora-
Mark Ladwig competing in pairs and Olympic silver medalists
Tanith Belbin-
Ben Agosto,
Kim Navarro-
Brent Bommentre, and
Madison Chock-
Greg Zuerlein in dance . . . The US women’s hockey team got a loud wakeup call last weekend from their Canadian archrivals, who pounded them, 5-1, in the Four Nations final in Finland. The world champion Americans, who had taken the first two meetings with their neighbors at the Hockey Canada Cup in September, now have lost three of the last four. The two squads will meet four more times before the Games - twice in the States and twice north of the border.
Shiny Shani
Shani Davis dropped a golden calling card on the rest of the planet at last weekend’s World Cup speedskating opener in Berlin, winning both the 1,000 and 1,500 meters and setting a track record by more than half a second in the shorter race. Big statement, too, by teammate
Tucker Fredricks, who knocked off the favored Koreans in the 500. Nothing for the American women, whose best effort was eighth in the 1,000 by
Heather Richardson. The US short-trackers, meanwhile, picked up five medals at last weekend’s World Cup in Montreal, with
Katherine Reutter claiming gold at 1,500 meters. The Cup races, including this weekend’s event in Marquette, Mich., will determine how many Olympic entries the US team will receive . . . Soon after Dutch sponsor DSB Bank went bankrupt last month, blowing a $300,000 hole in US Speedskating’s budget at a terrible time, the federation recruited a most unlikely savior: comedian
Stephen Colbert, who is raising cash through donations from Colbert Nation. “We must ensure that it is America’s 38-inch thighs on that medal platform!’’ he declared . . . There could be a couple of teenagers on the US women’s luge team for at least the first two World Cup races.
Kate Hansen and
Emily Sweeney (Suffield, Conn.), who are 17 and 16 respectively, are sitting first and second in qualifying going into this weekend’s finale on the Olympic track in
Whistler, British Columbia, where the top three will join world champion
Erin Hamlin and
Julia Clukey (Augusta, Maine) on the roster.
Courtney Zablocki, who competed in the last two Games, already has been eliminated and
Ashley Walden (Westborough), her Salt Lake teammate, is on the bubble. The men’s team will be Walden’s husband
Bengt Walden,
Tony Benshoof,
Chris Mazdzer, and
Trent Matheson, with
Mark Grimmette-
Brian Martin,
Christian Niccum-
Dan Joye, and
Matt Mortensen-
Preston Griffall earning the doubles spots.
Running start
Germany’s
Irina Mikitenko, who just collected her second straight World Marathon Majors women’s title and another $500,000 check, already has a leg up on the 2009-10 cycle thanks to her victory in London and her runner-up effort in Chicago. She leads Russia’s
Liliya Shobukhova by 5 points. Kenya’s
Sammy Wanjiru, who won the men’s crown, has a 25-point lead from triumphs in London and Chicago.
Meb Keflezighi’s breakthrough victory in New York two weekends ago put him in a five-way tie for second. . . . The US weightlifting team for next week’s World Championships in South Korea will be half-veteran, half-rookie, as it often is in the post-Olympic year. The most promising newcomer is
Sarah Robles, who took silver in the 75-plus kilogram class at last year’s junior tournament. Making her fifth global appearance will be
Jacquelynn Berube. Best chance for a medal rides with
Kendrick Farris, who placed eighth at 85 kilograms in Beijing and is competing in his third world competition, along with
Lance Frye (77 kg) and
Matthew Bruce (85 kg) . . .
Tim Morehouse, who won a silver medal in fencing with the US men’s sabre team last year, became the first Olympian in the Brandeis Athletic Hall of Fame when he was inducted this month along with the Globe’s
Bud Collins, who formerly coached the tennis team . . . Pole dancing as an Olympic sport? That’s what the “vertical dance’’ people are petitioning for, hoping the London organizers will add the event to the 2012 program. Since gymnastics has a horizontal bar event, they argue, why not a vertical bar? The challenge, supporters concede, is that the activity is commonly associated with strip clubs. “We have to change people’s preconceived ideas on what pole dancing is all about,’’ their website acknowledges.
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com; material from Olympic committees, sports federations, interviews, and wire services was used in this report. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
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