In the 2020 letter to USATF from the USOPC, they included some older letters from 2008, but this one was left out.
I want to point out a few things here:
1. As you can see, the USOPC has a long history of making unreasonable requests, and later backtracking on them. For example, in this 2008 letter, they ask that we remove ALL constituent based representatives from the board, and they wanted a “soft” mandate that all board members donate financially to the NGB.
We did add independent board members and dramatically reduce the number of constituent based members, but we did not fully comply with every request and not only were we not decertified, they backed down from those requests.
In 2018 Rick Adams told us that our independent board members were going to have to come from a list provided by the USOPC. He later backed down from that stance.
2. The USOPC was fully aware that the changes ultimately had to be approved by the membership and they DID NOT OBJECT TO THAT. “[…] significant governance reform will be drafted and submitted for approval at the 2008 USA Track & Field Annual Convention […]”
3. The reason I asked Bill for this letter is because I was putting together information about the USOPC’s history of making threats to NGBs in order for them to make changes.
IMAGINE MY HORROR when a few years ago the USOPC tried to claim that it had no leverage over NGBs and that it had been powerless to stop sexual abuse!!!!!
The USOPC ALWAYS had the ability to make the NGBs change. It could have mandated that all lists of banned coaches be public. It could have mandated background checks. Etc. They could have prevented some athlete abuse.
It wasn’t that they could not do it. It was that they did not care. They CHOSE not to take action. Athletes are disposable commodities to them and it did not matter to the USOPC if the athletes were abused. USATF’s governance was an issue they chose to engage with, but athlete sexual abuse did not rise to that level of importance.
The staff at the USOPC have hardly changed. A few of the top people were let go, but Rick Adams was the person overseeing NGBs during much of the relevant period, and he got a promotion. For all their push for NGBs to have nominating and governance panels to foster diversity, the USOPC continues to have a very white Board and executive staff, and has made no commitment to change that.
I want to see real change at the USOPC. They think that putting a female CEO in place and slapping a SafeSport bumper sticker on the movement is going to be enough to convince everyone that things have changed. I disagree.
