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How are athletes coping with the yearlong delay — and training in the age of Covid?
Whether it's our coaches, our sports psychologists, the sports scientists — each of them are working in tandem to adapt the training cycle that ensures the athletes are at peak performance at exactly the right moment in time. That’s a pretty complicated and detailed process.
For a time, many of our swimmers were unable to access pools so their training was on the ground, different types of strength and conditioning than what they might have been used to previously. For some, particularly those who have been training since they were very young, it may be the first time in 10 or 15 years that they haven't been in the water for a couple of months.
Many of the combat sports are still very restricted in their ability to properly train in the environment because of the natural human interaction required.
Do you think the games will actually happen in 2021?
I am planning for them to happen, but we're also planning for them not to happen because that's the prudent response. It would be, first and foremost, a tragedy for the athletes who may never have their opportunity to compete. It would be financially devastating to our organization. That's a dark storm cloud that's looming and we're incredibly hopeful that it doesn't come to that.
How are you rebuilding trust with athletes especially after the Larry Nassar trial? I have to admit I cried watching some of the athletes testify.
What we heard was people were concerned about speaking up. They were concerned about retaliation. They were concerned about being listened to. We needed to create a culture where people can speak up both inside our own organization and within the athlete community.
We'll see significantly greater athlete representation, not only in our board and our committees and governance structure, but also down through the national governing bodies. We're going to work to adjust our culture and to make sure that we are truly focused on athletes first.
What has been the financial impact of the postponement?
The vast majority of our revenue that we would have expected to come in this year as a result of the games is deferred into next year. We do expect that revenue to decline some from the corporate community and potentially the broadcast community. The vast majority of the reductions are both people and some expenses around our training centers. We went from having as many as 350 athletes a night, residing and training in the training centers down to, at one point, we had less than 20 athletes here in Colorado Springs.
Do you expect pandemic to leave a lasting impact on Olympic sports?
I say all the time each of our Olympic and Paralympic athletes started their sport journey at a pool or a rink or a soccer field or gym somewhere in a community. We need those facilities to be vibrant and strong. What none of us can lose sight of is each of these are also likely either municipally run or small businesses that are struggling to figure out how to survive. The key for all of us is to ensure that as we are recovering and or evolving as a society that sport doesn't get left behind.
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