DENVER (AP) For decades, the question at the Summer Olympics hasn’t been whether the United States will top the medals table, but by how much.
If anyone on U.S. soil has a problem with that and given the headlines of the last few years, plenty of people do well, imagine the alternative.
Item No. 4 under the heading “Purposes” in the 1978 law that created the U.S. Olympic Committee is the mandate for the federation to construct “the most competent … representation possible in each event of the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, and Pan-American Games.”
That’s a long-winded way of saying “win lots of medals,” and since the break up of the Soviet Union, nobody has come close to winning as many as the U.S.
But after being criticized by abuse victims, athletes’ representatives, lawmakers and a couple of blue-ribbon panels for adhering too closely to a “money-for-medals” prototype that served the U.S. well on the playing field, new leaders at the USOC are trying to reshape their mission. They want the new USOC to focus more fully on the overall welfare of athletes instead of simply what they can contribute to the win column.
It’s a work in progress, and how well that overhaul melds with the USOC’s core mission of winning medals will come into sharp focus starting a year from Thursday, when the first champions are crowned at the Tokyo Olympics.
Gracenote Sports projects the United States to win 126 medals a number that would beat second-place China by 45 and outpace the total from 2016 by five (There are more medals at stake next year because of added sports).
If the ultimate number falls short of that target or whatever internal targets the USOC has set for itself expect some second-guessing about the wisdom of its newly reconstituted vision. If the number swells too large well, expect some second-guessing in that case, too.
Regardless, the bottom line remains unchanged from what it’s been for years: Fourth-place finishers and inspirational stories are nice, but NBC and U.S. sponsors also want to see some winners for all those billions they fork over.
“People are buying the Olympics before they know the results, but historically, Team USA has been extraordinarily competitive,” said Dan Lovinger, NBC’s executive vice president of advertising sales. “We expect them to be again.”
A no-win situation for the USOC?
It might seem that way if you pay attention to what’s been happening in the boardrooms in the wake of Larry Nassar and a number of abuse cases that have led to a near-complete turnover of the USOC’s top staff an overhaul many critics say hasn’t gone far enough.
Once the torch is lighted, however, the public pays attention to the scoreboard, not the meetings.
Though Michael Phelps is gone, the U.S. swimming team, led by Katie Ledecky, looks like a good bet to dominate as it always does.
With Jamaica’s Usain Bolt out of the mix, there are few roadblocks in the way of the Americans grabbing 30 medals in track and field.
