Ethics a USOC concern

America's Olympic leaders thought they had solved their latest crisis, declaring it much ado about nothing.\nMeeting privately two weeks ago to debate accusations of an ethics violation by CEO Lloyd Ward, they emerged with smiles and a plea for unity going into the Athens Olympics.\n"For us, that's the end of it," said Bill Stapleton, U.S. Olympic Committee vice president.\nNot quite.\nStapleton should have known nothing comes easy for an organization that even in good times is often filled with dissent and paralyzed by infighting.\nThings have gotten so bad this time, though, that USOC executives will go before Congress on Tuesday to explain why America's athletes do so well when their leaders seemingly can't even agree on what to have for lunch.\nStill, the intervention of some key senators is being welcomed by many within the organization as the best way to straighten out a quarter-century of raging turf battles.\n"I think a congressional hearing is perhaps the only way out of this," said Bruce Derwin, a former USOC executive board member.\nThe scandal is giving some Olympic sponsors second thoughts and could lead to an overhaul of the committee.\nUSOC president Marty Mankamyer has been asked to resign by some members just nine months into her job. Her predecessor, Sandy Baldwin, resigned in May after admitting she lied about her academic credentials.\nIn the latest flap, the group's executive committee decided Jan. 13 not to discipline Ward over his attempt to help steer Pan American Games business to his brother.\nThe decision touched off a series of resignations, accusations and attempted coups that escalated almost daily.\nIt worried Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska so much that he summoned USOC leaders to Washington to appear before a hearing chaired by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.\n"We may appear to be in costume sometime," Mankamyer insisted, "but it's really a great organization."\nIt may not be the same after Congress finishes examining why the 1978 act that gave the committee control over America's Olympic movement isn't working.\nThe USOC's unwieldy structure includes volunteers on the 22-member executive board and 125-member board of directors. They often clash with paid staffers over the most minute issues.\nThe threat of congressional intervention isn't the only problem facing the organization. Forbes magazine warned recently that the USOC's overhead is too high and it doesn't spend enough money on its programs.\nAnd at least one big sponsor is calling for an accounting of the organization's $125 million annual budget at a time when crucial sponsorships are being solicited.\nIn a letter to the USOC, David D'Alessandro, chief executive of John Hancock Financial Services, said his company could invoke a morals clause to drop its $10 million sponsorship if USOC leaders can't resolve their differences.\n"It is no longer possible to overlook the seemingly nonstop turmoil and controversy that afflict your organization," D'Alessandro wrote.\nTurmoil is a way of life inside the USOC, which has gone through 12 chief executives in its 25-year history and almost as many volunteer leaders.\nIn the last two weeks, though, the charges and countercharges have come so fast they are more difficult to keep track of than cross-country skiers in a snowstorm.\nThe infighting intensified so much that:\n-- Five people involved in the ethics probe of Ward quit in protest.\n-- Some USOC leaders claimed Mankamyer and a USOC staffer conspired to try to get rid of Ward by making too big a deal out of the ethics charges.\n-- The USOC staffer, Pat Rodgers, claimed the head of the USOC ethics board told him to make Ward's ethics problem "go away."\n-- All five USOC vice presidents called on Mankamyer to resign, which she refused to do.\n-- Ward accused Mankamyer of "disparagement and character assassination" and joined the call for her to quit.\nRodgers is among witnesses who will testify at a hearing that will center on the ethics probe of Ward but could become much broader.\nWard's continuing membership in the all-male Augusta National Golf Club -- the subject of an executive board meeting in November -- is also likely to be brought up.\nAll the turmoil inside the USOC doesn't appear to have had much effect on America's performance in the Olympics. The U.S. team won the medal count with 97 at Sydney and had a team-record 34 medals in Salt Lake City.\nStill, some of the athletes at the USOC's training centers in Colorado Springs are wondering just what is going on.\n"I think it's a shame that the problems with management are taking away from the athletes," triathlete Joe Umphenour said.