28 April 2008
Olympic Sports Administration in the United States
Citizens and corporations provide most funding for U.S. athletes
By Bridget Hunter
The United States differs from most other nations sending teams to the Olympic Games in the way athletes and their sports are organized and supported.
Bridget Hunter is a former officer of USADiving, the national governing body for competitive diving in the United States. She is currently an editor in the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs.
U.S. participation in the Olympic Games, although framed and authorized by federal law, relies on private enterprise, personal philanthropy, and ultimately the energy and talents of thousands of volunteers to make Olympic dreams a reality for American athletes and coaches.
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC), headquartered in Colorado, is the coordinating body for Olympic-related athletic activity in the United States. It seeks to “assist in finding opportunities for every American to participate in sport, regardless of gender, race, age, geography, or physical ability,” according to the organization’s Web site.
The USOC is unusual within the international sports community in that it is funded by contributions from private citizens and by major support from the corporate community. The USOC, unlike the vast majority of the 198 national Olympic committees, receives no ongoing government subsidy. In addition to income generated through donations, sponsorships, and licensing fees, the USOC sells USOC-licensed apparel and other items through catalogs and an online store.
Funding also is provided by the U.S. Olympic Foundation, a nonprofit entity that was established after the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to benefit Olympic and amateur sports in the United States. The original capital investment -- approximately $115 million -- was raised through the sale of commemorative Olympic coins by the U.S. government and surplus funds from the operating budget of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The foundation aims to reinvest up to 50 percent of its investment income and distribute the other 50 percent in grants to the USOC's member organizations to further develop sports in the United States.
Federally Authorized, Privately Supported
The Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, a federal law enacted in 1978 and named for a longtime U.S. Senator from Alaska, chartered the USOC and set specific requirements for its member national governing bodies for individual sports. According to the law, the USOC’s purpose is “to promote and support amateur athletic activities involving the United States and foreign nations.” The act was amended in 1998 to expand the USOC's role to include the Paralympic Games, and increase athlete representation.
Legally, the USOC is a monopoly. The Stevens Act directs the USOC to “exercise exclusive jurisdiction” over all matters pertaining to U.S. participation in the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, and the Pan-American Games, and it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the national Olympic committee for the United States.
The IOC recognizes sports nationalities rather than political nationalities, guided by decisions from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international judicial panel which has sports disputes as its sole jurisdiction. The CAS has ruled that sports nationality refers to an athlete’s eligibility for international competition as a representative of one nation or another. That, the CAS has determined, is a different status than the individual’s legal citizenship.
The concept of sports nationalities allows independent territories, commonwealths, protectorates, and certain geographical areas to have discrete identities for international athletic competition. For instance, Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, sends its own team to international competitions. Each national Olympic committee governs Olympic affairs within its jurisdiction, including identifying, training, selecting, entering, and funding an Olympic team in its trip to the Games.
Many of the USOC’s responsibilities for Olympic athlete selection and training are performed by its more than 70 national governing bodies (NGBs) for individual sports. The NGBs, in addition to their Olympic responsibilities, carry out a range of activities to promote their sports by broadening participation, expanding public support, encouraging construction of competitive-quality facilities, and setting standards for competition. Typically, U.S. NGBs operate with very small paid staffs and rely on volunteers -- board and committee members as well as officials at all levels of competition -- to do much of the work involved in sports administration.
Each NGB coordinates its activities not only with the USOC but with the international sports federation that governs international competition in a particular sport or sports. For instance, USA Swimming, which sets rules for competitive swimming events of all types for all ages of competitors in the United States, is responsible for ensuring U.S.-hosted international events are conducted in compliance with standards set by FINA, the international federation for aquatic sports.
Each U.S. NGB funds its operations through various sources, such as membership dues; sanctioning fees for competitions; sales of sportswear, accessories, equipment, and promotional items; and charitable donations.
For many NGBs, significant financial support comes from their alumni -- former competitors who are seeking to give back to a sport that enriched them in ways that cannot be measured in trophies or medals.
