Keystone – The American Olympic team will be drug free – even at the expense of winning – and will witness no outbursts of poor sportsmanship at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee vowed Thursday.
“Our No. 1 goal is to have a clean team at those Olympic Games. Even if we don’t win a single medal, we’ll have a clean team,” USOC chief executive officer Jim Scherr said at the governor’s annual conference on tourism, where he represented the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Although none of the country’s contenders tested positive for illegal, performance-enhancing drugs at the Winter Games in Turin, several incidents of bad behavior placed Americans in an unflattering light, he said. Scherr did not name specific incidents, but was referring to instances of pouting, bad-mouthing and other unseemly acts by athletes such as alpine skier Bode Miller, speedskater Shani Davis and members of the men’s hockey team.
“Rest assured, we’ve taken measures and that behavior will not occur in Beijing,” he said.
USOC officials declined to provide further details of what is billed as an educational effort that will be required of every athlete, coach and staff member before they leave for China.
“Ninety-nine percent of our delegation does an absolutely superb job in representing our country, but in the Olympic environment, and given the profile of the U.S. team, it takes just one act of poor sportsmanship or inappropriate conduct to create a bad perception,” USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.
Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
