It will take years and a markedly different track record for the United States Olympic Committee to reform its battered image. But the restructuring plan recently endorsed by the USOC board should help end the group's infighting and ethical abuses. Congress may still need to act.
The U.S. committee had become a stain on competitive sports and an embarrassment even within the corrupt Olympic movement. The board finally acted, endorsing two measures that address the USOC's financial problems and dysfunctional bureaucracy. The board dramatically reduced its size, from 123 members to nine, and it eliminated the often-meddlesome "executive committee." It also narrowed the internal decisionmaking process and imposed stronger ethics rules.
These changes should make a difference. Making deep cuts in the USOC's top-heavy management is an essential part of reform. Having fewer players in the mix will reduce parochial politics, increase accountability and make Olympic business more democratic and transparent. Together with the USOC's new budget-cutting efforts, the new governance plan should help restore public confidence in America's Olympic movement.
The plan may change between now and the fall, as Congress crafts a reorganization plan. Nine members may be too few for the board to be truly representative. The number, however, is a good starting point, for it reflects how bold officials need to be in restructuring the national committee.
The USOC also needs to better explain how its new ethics rules will be instilled, monitored and enforced. Congress should pay attention. After all, political pressure - not any sensitivity by the USOC to its own mistakes - got this Olympic cleanup started.
