After Chicago's Failure, Movement Is Afoot to Change USOC

Blame for Chicago's embarrassing defeat in last week's election in Copenhagen for the 2016 Summer Games continued to descend on the U.S. Olympic Committee leadership Wednesday as more than three dozen U.S. sport governing officials called for the immediate resignations of USOC Chairman Larry Probst and acting chief executive Stephanie Streeter.

The call from 44 chief executives of the nation's 46 sport governing bodies came hours after Streeter announced she would not seek the permanent CEO post but would remain on the job until a new leader is found, presumably through the February Winter Games in Vancouver. Probst had said he had no plans to resign, but acknowledged, "I serve at the discretion of the USOC board."

"If you look at what happened in Copenhagen, the time for the USOC to step forward is now," said Skip Gilbert, the chief executive of USA Triathlon and the chairman of the Association of Chief Executives For Sport. "We are prepared to push this. . . . There needs to be a change."

USOC spokeswoman Lindsay Hogan said the organization's board is scheduled to meet later this week and would have a response at that time.

NBC Universal Sports and Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol, whose company purchased the rights to the next two Olympics for a record $2 billion, made the first public call for a leadership change hours after Chicago became the second straight U.S. city to finish fourth in the international race for a Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee awarded the 2016 Games to Rio de Janeiro. New York lost its bid for the 2012 Games, which went to London, four years ago.

Ebersol and others have said the USOC's failure to connect with the international sports community and the perceived arrogance of its leadership doomed Chicago's bid. In March, the USOC's board ousted the popular and, from a sporting perspective, successful chief executive Jim Scherr, replacing him with Streeter, who went from a volunteer position on the board to earning a $560,000 salary.

Streeter and Probst, who replaced Peter Ueberroth as chairman last summer, have backgrounds in the corporate business world, not international sport. Probst said the USOC would seek to replace Streeter with someone possessing business and sports experience and willing to travel the world to improve the organization's international image.

"We need to have a very long-term strategy about engaging with the international community," Probst said. "We have plenty of good relationships, but the reality is, we don't have the political capital; we don't have the leverage."

The organization has yet to resolve a long-simmering and acrimonious dispute with the IOC over the share of U.S. broadcast and international sponsor revenue it receives -- far more than any other nation. In July, it infuriated the IOC by announcing the creation of a new Olympic network with Comcast, a deal it finally scuttled under pressure.

With the back-to-back embarrassments for New York and Chicago, Ebersol said, the IOC had "sent a message" that it would not elect a U.S. city as an Olympic host until the USOC learned to play nice in the world sport community.

The United States hasn't held a Summer Games since 1996, when Atlanta put on a Games criticized for excessive commercialism.

Holding Olympics in the United States is considered critical to the USOC and the sport governing bodies under it, because U.S.-based Games generate more television and sponsor revenue.