USOC boss says U.S. must ‘work a little harder’
Scherr says Team USA probably overshot with goal of 34 medals
 Domenico Stinellis / AP When asked to grade the United States' Olympic team, USOC CEO Jim Scherr gave the squad's effort a B-plus. |
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TURIN, Italy - Jim Scherr’s report card for the U.S. Olympic team looks like this: B-plus in performance, something less in behavior.
Bode’s bust on the Alpine courses, flops in freestyle and hiccups in hockey were among the disappointments that forced the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee to give the Americans a less-than-perfect grade.
But for each of those letdowns, there were people like skier Ted Ligety, snowboarder Rosey Fletcher and the men’s curling team to balance the ledger.
Add it all up and the Americans had 23 medals, including eight golds, through Friday. Both totals ranked one behind Germany for second.
“There are a couple areas where we thought we’d perform better but we didn’t,” Scherr said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. “We just have to go back and work a little harder for Vancouver.”
The biggest single loss for the U.S. delegation, more than any flub or fall or flop, was Michelle Kwan, the game’s biggest star, who left after the first day with a groin injury.
Before the games started, Scherr said the Americans had the potential to match or surpass the record 34 medals from Salt Lake City. He also frequently pointed out that teams competing at an Olympics after their country hosted one traditionally experienced a 41 percent drop.
The U.S. team will do better than that, and still has a chance to win the overall medal count. But other countries, most notably Canada and Russia, are doing better this time. In retrospect, Scherr said the USOC probably had no business shooting for 34 medals.
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Asked to grade his team, Scherr handed out the B-plus, “but that could turn into an A-plus because we can still win the gold-medal count and the total-medal count in these games, which would be an incredible feat.”
Less impressive were a few off-the-field episodes that made some Americans look petty and unfocused.
The tiff between speedskaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick after they won silver and bronze in the men’s 1,500 made for great theater. But aren’t these guys supposed to be teammates?
Lindsey Jacobellis’ hotdog move at the end of snowboardcross cost her a gold medal and sparked a debate about whether these snowboarders understand the true gravitas of the Olympic games — or whether the so-called Olympic community simply takes itself too seriously.
Bode Miller’s poor performance on the slope was matched by some apres-ski activities that didn’t look so great — tweaking his ankle while playing pickup basketball and being spotted late at night at The Irish Igloo, a popular drinking establishment in Sestriere.
Scherr defended Jacobellis and wouldn’t get specific about anyone else. He said the USOC needs to do a better job of spelling out what’s right and wrong for athletes who come to the Olympics with the name “United States” emblazoned across their chests.
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“We don’t want to second-guess what people do,” Scherr said. “But at certain points, if certain behavior becomes a distraction to teammates or reflects poorly on the entire U.S. Olympic team, we want to step in and take some action.”
Scherr said the USOC might encourage national governing bodies to use sports psychologists to help athletes prepare for the fishbowl the Winter Olympics have become.
They have always been the “baby” Olympics compared to the Summer Games, but with 10,000 credentialed media — about four reporters for every athlete — this is certainly no regular stop on the World Cup.
The Olympic stage may have been too big for some athletes.
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