Organizational Effectiveness
Sport Advancement
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Our Ethics and Compliance team has raised the bar for sports organizations with new standards of excellence. We continue to increase engagement with athletes and National Governing Bodies (NGBs), helping further their progress and success.
Ethics and Compliance
This past year, we engaged external auditors to audit select USOPC departments with findings to be released in 2023. These audits ensure we identify opportunities to improve our operations and ensure we hold ourselves accountable.
We also continued governance reform efforts, updating our USOPC Bylaws in phases with Phase 3 amendments enacted in 2022, codifying direct elections of athletes and NGBs to the USOPC Board of Directors.
As a result of our Phase 3 USOPC Bylaw amendments, we conducted a board chair selection process incorporating both internal and external voices for the first time in a generation, ultimately leading to the election of Gene Sykes as Chair of the USOPC Board of Directors.
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Coming out of the Beijing Games, we hosted a Winter Sports Summit with leadership and high-performance teams from the eight winter NGBs, including athletes who represented Team USA at past Games, to share best practices and determine areas for collaboration. As a result, we’re consistently communicating and exploring projects ranging from blades for bobsleds to aerodynamic suits – working collaboratively as we plan for Milan-Cortina 2026 and beyond.
National Governing Body Support and Long-Term Stability
With NGBs being crucial partners to Team USA’s all-around success, we continued to work with each of the 50-plus member organizations according to their specific needs.
NGBs are subject to an audit at least once every four years, aligned with amendments made to the Ted Stevens Act and our USOPC Bylaws in 2020. When findings don’t meet our standards, NGBs are provided with findings and recommendations, and are given a specific timeframe for remediation.
Recognizing the work these audits and our compliance standards require of NGBs, we rolled out an NGB assistance program, and we hold quarterly compliance and audit meetings to share learnings, voice challenges and socialize ongoing work. We also assist smaller NGBs – which have less time and resources – to prepare for their audits. We also began constructing an operational approach for sports that do not yet have a certified NGB.
Our National Governing Bodies Council (NGBC) meets monthly alongside smaller advisory committee meetings, and partners and communicates regularly with the Team USA Athletes' Commission.
You can access the NGBC Report and Sport Benefits statements here.
NGB AUDIT OVERVIEW
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NGBs audited
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NGB certifications renewed, as well as 2 new NGBs certified (converted from High Performance Management Organizations)
In 2022, the U.S. Congress approved funding for the Congressional Commission on the State of Olympic and Paralympic Sport in the United States. The Commission is tasked with making recommendations on how best to position the movements in the future. There are 16 members, 11 of whom are U.S. Olympians and Paralympians. The Commission will complete its work in early 2024.
