USYS Is Refraining On Commenting On Any Of The 12 CSUSOP Recommendations...
“While we will refrain from commenting on any of the 12 [CSUSOP] recommendations until we have discussed the report in detail with U.S. Soccer Federation leadership, we recognize the thoroughness, comprehensiveness, and thoughtfulness that went into the report,” stated the U.S. Youth Soccer (USYS), the largest youth sport organization in the country, on March 21.
The USYS released the above in response to the Final Report of the Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics, which was submitted to Congress on March 1.
The Commission on the State of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympics (CSUSOP), formed by the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Act of 2020, was “tasked with studying the current system, evaluating the effectiveness of its governing institutions, and setting out a new vision for the movement's success in the twenty-first century and beyond” in according to the Report.
Oddly, the USYS is not a member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC.)
Surprisingly, none of the USOPC members has yet released the statement in response to the CSUSOP Final Report, although today is the 23rd day after the Report's release.
Where are the publications?
The Sports Examiner Editor emailed me three days ago, “sad that almost no one else is covering.”
Congress awarded $2 million to the CSUSOP for its budget, but the Commission had no budget for hiring a “Director of Communication.” Nearly four decades ago, the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports had the Communication Department with three positions directed by Beverly L. Dodd.
By the way, you can see the list of publications that already ran articles about the Final Report in my previous newsletter issue, No Mention Of "Deaflympics" In National Media In The Past 24 Hours-!
List of 12 CSUSOP Recommendations
Recommendation #1: Congress should allow USOPC to focus on high-performance athletes and create a new federal office to coordinate and develop youth and grassroots sports.
Recommendation #2: Congress should make SafeSport fully independent so it can earn athletes’ trust and be held more accountable to the movement and the public
Recommendation #3: Congress should reform certain SafeSport practices and reimagine the way SafeSport operates at the youth and grassroots level
Recommendation #4: The terms “amateur” and “amateurism” should finally be retired from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movement, and athletes’ rights—when participating in movement sports— should be enshrined in law
Recommendation #5: USOPC governance processes must be improved.
Recommendation #6: Congress should strengthen athletes’ representation by making the Team USA Athletes’ Commission fully independent.
Recommendation #7: Congress should enhance public oversight of the movement to ensure transparency, accountability, and due process at all levels.
Recommendation #8: Access and equality for Paralympians and those participating in para-sports at all levels must be improved.
Recommendation #9: Congress, state governments, USOPC, the NCAA, and other stakeholders should take concrete steps to improve equitable access to movement sports.
Recommendation #10: USOPC should adopt a new model for organizing U.S. bids to host the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Recommendation #11: Congress, USOPC, governing bodies, and other stakeholders should partner to improve coaching at all levels.
Recommendation #12: Congress and state legislatures should think creatively about new and supplementary funding sources to support youth and grassroots sports and the safety and well-being of our high-performance athletes.
The CSUSOP Report has only one mention of the “Amateur Sports Act of 1978”-!!!!!!!
The name of the “Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act” has 55 hits in that Report. Remember that this Act was renamed from the “Amateur Sports Act” in 1998
However, the CSUSOP put Footnote #24 on page 27, which reads, “For consistency, the Commission will refer to the legislation throughout this report by its current, amended title, the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, even when describing its previous iterations.”
I totally disagreed with that because it could confuse you with the mix-up of which years. Use your judgment by reading the following:
Page 6: “The following year [1976], his President’s Commission on Olympic Sports asked Congress to step in and reconceptualize the entire landscape of Olympic and Paralympic sports in our country. Congress’s legislation in response to that commission’s recommendations, today known as the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, established the system that has been in place ever since.”
Page 9: “Just as it did during the Cold War, when lawmakers enacted the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act to restructure a broken system…” (The Cold War ended in 1991.)
Page 32: “In response, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a subcommittee hearing to evaluate the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act and examine whether USOPC was meeting its statutory mandate” (That time was 1995.)
Page 32: “On October 21 of that year, Congress enacted their Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act as part of its omnibus appropriations package.” (That year was 1978.)
Page 46: “Moreover, perhaps in a nod to former CEO LeRoy Walker’s 1995 expressed view that Congress gave USOPC a mandate in the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act that was too broad and insufficiently funded, the former USOPC executive asked the Subcommittee to “identify areas for potential clarification or expansion of the Olympic [and Paralympic] Committee’s authority, or other needed reforms, including outside of the Act.” (That was 1995.)
Page 50: “While the IOC recognized the ICSD and accepted the Deaflympics as part of the broader global Olympic movement in 1955, deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes and their sports were omitted when Congress organized the U.S. Olympic movement under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act in 1978 and the 1998 amendment integrating U.S. Paralympics.” (See 1978.)
Page 106: “When Congress enacted the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act in 1978, one of its original mandates to USOPC and the governing bodies was to help increase the representation of women, minorities, and people with disabilities in Olympic and Paralympic sports at all levels…” (See 1978.)
One mention?
Page 26: “Senator Ted Stevens, one of the commissioners, introduced the Amateur Sports Act in March 1978.”
Confusion!
As the CSUSOP’s fiscal agent, the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, led by Tom Farry, mentioned the fundamental flaws of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978.
It could be false! Read the below.
“The U.S. Olympic [and Paralympic] Committee has never once held a seminar for its member organizations on the letter, spirit and intent of the Act under which they operate. Which is incredible, when you think about it,” told the Colorado Springs Gazette by Michael Harrigan, the founding force and former director of the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports in 1975-77. He wrote about the topic in a 2018 piece for Sports Business Journal. “So it’s no surprise then that people get it wrong. They have no sense of history.”
Back to the U.S. Youth Soccer, we applaud them for not making the decisions quickly.
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In the Section of Recommendation #8, the CSUSOP reported that “Congress should also study further the challenges faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes and proposals to integrate deaf sports into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movement; in the meantime, USOPC should work with the U.S.A. Deaf Sports Federation to remove impediments to its full use of Deaflympic trademarks and access to sponsorships.”
Whose body is in this picture? Read Big Brother's Deaflympian Matt Klotz's Censored/Blurred Tattoo