Associated Press (AP) reports that a five-member task force, headed by Don Fehr, head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, and Roberta Cooper Ramo, a former president of the American Bar Association, has been launched to help reform the troubled United States Olympic Committee (USOC).
A letter to USOC interim president Bill Martin by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, Sen. Ted Stevens, and Sen. Ben Nighthorse, says that testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee and news reports “suggest that the USOC is dysfunctional and in need of review”.
According to AP, the senators urged the USOC to cooperate with the new task force, giving it complete independence and whatever documents it requests. They expect the task force’s recommendations by June 30.
Martin released a statement Thursday afternoon commending the selection of the new task force. He said the USOC believes that the end result of the work done by both the independent commission and the USOC task force “will ultimately result in an organization more capable of fulfilling the mandate of Congress, which is to serve the interests and needs of U.S. athletes and the American public while advancing the Olympic ideal”.
