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U.S. Olympic official involved in Beijing controversy resigns
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The U.S. Olympics official at the center of the controversy over U.S. cyclists wearing masks at the Beijing Olympics has left the USOC.
Steve Roush, the USOC’s chief of sport performance, resigned Tuesday. It’s uncertain whether he was forced to resign or left on his own.
The USOC gushed about his work. Roush said it was a difficult decision to leave. But there's more behind this.
Roush, 50, was criticized for demanding that four track cyclists, who wore air-filtering masks upon arrival at the Beijing airport, issue a written apology for offending the Games’ Beijing hosts – even though the masks were developed and issued by the USOC to combat Beijing’s notorious air pollution. (Some of the same cyclists involved had gotten sick from Beijing’s foul air at a competition a year before the Olympics.) They were the only athletes photographed wearing the masks.
Cyclists said Roush was rude and threatened to take away their Olympic eligibility unless they apologized. The cyclists said the incident haunted them during the Games and after, and their performances suffered. None of them wound up medaling, even though two – Jenny Reed and Sarah Hammer – had won world championships and were favored to win medals.
After the Olympics, the cyclists hired a lawyer to ask for an apology from the USOC. USOC chief Jim Scherr said, in a letter, that mistakes were made. Now athletes now have better and more independent representation – something good coming from a bad situation.
This fall, Roush’s division was reorganized into two sections: operations and logistics, and athletes and sports federations. Roush was relegated to running the first.
Here’s the irony: Despite the cycling incident, Roush was considered a huge advocate for U.S. Olympic athletes . His job was to make sure their needs were met – food, training, housing, both at the Games and at home at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He took dozens of trips to Beijing to plan logistics. He had a proven track record. In Roush’s tenure, the U.S. staved off China in the overall medal count at Beijing, an impressive achievement and one his own bosses, Peter Ueberroth and Scherr, said was unlikely. The U.S. team won the medal count in Athens, and in 2006 managed to win more medals (25) than any U.S. winter Olympic team in a Games held outside America.
The view from here: The USOC, pitching the 2016 Olympics for Chicago, goes overboard in Beijing trying not to offend any Olympic hosts or International Olympic Committee members, who will vote on the 2016 host city this October. They send Roush to wrangle an apology from the athletes, who should have been left alone. After all, the cyclists were just doing their jobs – trying to give themselves the best chance at winning medals. Scherr, a 1988 wrestling Olympian, should understand that more than anybody.
Later, when the cyclists rightfully refuse to let the issue get shoved under the rug, USOC officials, instead of sharing blame, single out Roush as the fall guy. It wasn’t the athletes’ fault. In fact, track cyclists aside, many still appreciate what Roush has done for them.
The USOC should own up to their role in this. But don't hold your breath -- unless you can do it through October.
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