Tag: Sarah Hirshland

News, views and noise from the non-stop, worldwide circus of Olympic sport: ● Athletics ● True, Usain Bolt is retired, but Jamaica’s women’s 100 m Olympic gold medalists are back on track after one of the great races ever in the Jamaican national championships in Kingston on Friday night. The results speak for themselves: 1. […]

On Tuesday, USA Gymnastics announced that the 2020 Olympic Trials in Artistic Gymnastics will be held at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri...

The United States Olympic Committee has been battered by accusations and scandal, hammered in Congressional hearings, changed out its leadership … and got the message. The USOC Board of Directors met in Los Angeles, California on Thursday and Board chair Susanne Lyons and chief executive Sarah Hirshland spoke to reporters afterwards by conference call. They […]

Last Tuesday’s introduction of a bill by U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) may be the start of a process which will empanel a 16-member working group to be called the “Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics.” According to Gardner’s bill, its task will be to conduct a nine-month review of the USOC […]

Much has been made over the past several days about protests from a group of athletes calling themselves the “Committee to Restore Integrity to the United States Olympic Committee and the USOC’s own reply. What’s all the fuss about? In short: ● On 2 January, the USOC announced the appointment of three new Board members: […]

If you thought 2018 was a rough year for the Olympic Movement, in board rooms, courtrooms and the halls of the U.S. Congress, get your seat belts fastened for an even rockier ride in 2019. At the start of the year, there are already more than a handful of issues set to explode (or implode, […]

The U.S. is back in the Olympic bidding business, this time for an Olympic Winter Games. At its Board of Directors meeting in San Francisco on Friday, the USOC selected Salt Lake City, Utah, as its bid city for a future Winter Games. The specific Games has not been confirmed, but the 2030 Games are […]

Perhaps not unexpectedly, the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee are walking, side-by-side, down a parallel road of de-certification of a sports governing body. What they do – and just as importantly – how they do it will re-shape the relationship between the IOC and the International Sports Federations and the USOC […]

When U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland began the process of de-certification of USA Gymnastics as the National Governing Body for the sport, she noted the possibility of that organization relinquishing its status voluntarily. Well, that didn’t happen and in a letter released on Wednesday, Hirshland wrote: “We received USAG’s response to our complaint […]

The FIG World Championships in Artistic Gymnastics finished in Doha (QAT) on Saturday. On Monday, new U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive, Sarah Hirshland, announced that the organization would begin the process of revoking the membership of USA Gymnastics as the National Governing Body for Gymnastics. Hirshland’s comment was significant in the details, including: “In the […]

The annual U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly will take place at the end of the week from 20-22 September in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Colorado Springs Gazette ran a long story last Friday about the “demands for change” being made on the organization, but the reality is that a significant part of the meeting will […]

More turmoil for USA Gymnastics as chief executive Kerry Perry resigned on Tuesday. She took over for Steve Penny on 1 December 2017 amid the fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal, but was criticized for a lack of communications with the athletes and a bad mis-step with the hiring and firing last week of Mary […]

USA Gymnastics dug itself into a deeper hole with the hiring and firing of Mary Lee Tracy as the Elite Development Coordinator, responsible for working with sub-elite gymnasts in the federation’s development programs. After the hiring announcement last Tuesday, she was excused on Friday. The statement said “USA Gymnastics has asked Mary Lee Tracy to […]

TSX HEADLINES – for July 13, 2018: With considerable fanfare, the chief executives of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and Paris 2024 committee signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in various areas to help ensure the success of both Games. It’s a good idea, but will these organizations – and beyond them, the Los […]

TSX HEADLINES – for July 13, 2018: With considerable fanfare, the chief executives of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and Paris 2024 committee signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in various areas to help ensure the success of both Games. It’s a good idea, but will these organizations – and beyond them, the Los […]