USOC CEO outlines organization’s restructuring
The U.S. Olympic Committee has initiated a significant restructuring of the organization designed, according to USOC officials, to empower and create safe environments for American athletes in the wake of the Larry Nassar, USA Swimming and other sex abuse scandals.
The re-organization outlined by USOC chief executive Sarah Hirshland in a letter to Olympic sports leaders this week is the most sweeping change to date as Hirshland attempts to place her stamp on and reshape the Colorado Springs-based tax exempt non-profit that has been the target of widespread criticism from Capitol Hill and former Olympians for ignoring or in some cases enabling sexual abuse within the 50 sports it governs.
The changes include executive structure, an expanded athlete services division, and the creation of dispute resolution group designed to make the grievance and resolution more accessible to athletes.
The re-organization features a nine-member executive team that will include Hirshland and newly created chief of staff, director of communications and marketing, and “chief people officer” positions. The latter will run a human resources-type division.
“I wanted to share with you some news regarding a restructuring that I have initiated within the USOC to improve our service to athletes and ensure that athlete health and wellness is our top priority,” wrote Hirshland, a former U.S. Golf Association’s chief commercial officer and a vice president for strategic business development for the Wasserman Media Group, who was hired last June to run an organization which reported revenues totaling $519.7 million for the fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
“While some of the changes are a natural evolution of our current structure given the newly formed partnership with LA28, all of the adjustments are fundamentally aimed at structuring our team to ensure we can make the changes necessary to create safe environments, empower athletes, and provide the funding and services our athletes need to perform at the highest level, while building the talent and relationships that will ensure the success of the Olympic and Paralympic movements for many years to come.
“Moving forward, the USOC will have a nine-member executive team – including me and eight direct reports that will lead all our functional teams. Together, this group will guide all aspects of the organization and will ensure that we are successfully delivering on our mission to empower Team USA athletes to achieve competitive excellence and inspire our nation. “
Hirshland’s letter comes two months after the release of a 233-page report by Ropes & Gray, the Boston-based law firm hired by the USOC to investigate the handling of the Nassar case. The report is a devastating and nearly complete rebuke of the American Olympic movement that lays out how USA Gymnastics, the USOC, and Michigan State and law enforcement enabled the former U.S. Olympic and USA Gymnastics team physician’s decades of sexual abuse of young gymnasts and athletes.
The report detailed how then USOC CEO Scott Blackmun and Alan Ashley, then the USOC’s chief of sport performance, failed to notify the USOC board of directors or SafeSport staff when they were first briefed on allegations against Nassar in the summer of 2015 and deleted emails related to Nassar. Ropes & Gray also found that Blackmun failed to clear up a board member’s understanding that USOC security chief Larry Buendort was the only USOC employee aware of the Nassar allegations prior to September 2016.
Blackmun resigned in February 2016. Ashley was fired the day the Ropes & Gray report was released.
The Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC, a watchdog group also known as Team Integrity and made up of former Olympians and athlete rights advocates, said it was disappointed by Hirshland’s plans.
“The USOC leadership demonstrated today that they are incapable of reforming themselves in a meaningful way,” the group said in a statement. “…The USOC is a national trust that is being abused and misused by incompetent leadership. Team Integrity continues to stand by our statements that the USOC Board and senior leadership needs to change in order to end athlete abuse.”
The USOC’s new executive group will include Hirshland, the chief of staff and the heads of seven divisions: athlete services, sports performances and national governing body services, legal and compliance, people, business operations, communications and marketing, and development.
Hirshland said the USOC will hire a chief of athlete services to oversee a division that will focus on four primary areas: athlete safety, athlete health and wellness (including sports medicine), athlete outreach and engagement (including the athlete advisory committee) and athlete education and advancement.
“We’re going to expand and improve the support we provide to Team USA athletes off the field of play through a newly constructed team, led by a chief of athlete services,” Hirshland wrote.
The chief of staff will handle day-to-day communication through the CEO’s office as well as overseeing international relations and the USOC’s partnership with LA 2028.
“In some ways, my to-do list will be the chief of staff’s to-do list and will allow me to be more effective at driving change and leading this great organization,” Hirshland said.