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USA Track & Field head wants 30 medals in 2012 Olympics
After taking a beating from teams like Jamaica at the Beijing Olympics, USA Track & Field is setting its sights high by aiming for 30 medals at the 2012 London Games.
“We now will announce to the world that we are going to take our ‘A game’ to London in 2012. Our goal: 30 clean medals,” USATF CEO Doug Logan said at the group’s annual meeting.
How ambitious is that? It’s a total the United States hasn’t surpassed on the track at a non-boycotted Summer Games since winning 31 medals in 1956.
The United States earned 23 track and field medals in Beijing this summer— more than any other nation—but the results were a letdown on many levels.
One example: The U.S. went 0-for-6 in sprint events for the first time at a Summer Games. Another: The American men took home four golds, their fewest from any Olympics.
In his address at the meeting’s closing general session Sunday, Logan outlined what he called the Project 30 task force to revamp various aspects of the way USATF does business. That includes, he said, negotiating “higher prices for existing sponsorship arrangements”—something which might not be easy in the current economic environment.
Logan wants to grow the USATF from a $16 million business to a $30 million business over the next four years.
“We know we made some strategic choices in the past that we must rethink and reverse,” Logan said.
Among his aims are winning the right to host the 2015 world championships in the United States, attracting more long-distance runners in order to grow membership 30 percent by 2012, and moving marketing and communications employees from Indianapolis to New York.
“We need to retake our rightful place as a major American sport,” Logan said, “which incidentally participates in the Olympics.”
“We now will announce to the world that we are going to take our ‘A game’ to London in 2012. Our goal: 30 clean medals,” USATF CEO Doug Logan said at the group’s annual meeting.
How ambitious is that? It’s a total the United States hasn’t surpassed on the track at a non-boycotted Summer Games since winning 31 medals in 1956.
The United States earned 23 track and field medals in Beijing this summer— more than any other nation—but the results were a letdown on many levels.
One example: The U.S. went 0-for-6 in sprint events for the first time at a Summer Games. Another: The American men took home four golds, their fewest from any Olympics.
In his address at the meeting’s closing general session Sunday, Logan outlined what he called the Project 30 task force to revamp various aspects of the way USATF does business. That includes, he said, negotiating “higher prices for existing sponsorship arrangements”—something which might not be easy in the current economic environment.
Logan wants to grow the USATF from a $16 million business to a $30 million business over the next four years.
“We know we made some strategic choices in the past that we must rethink and reverse,” Logan said.
Among his aims are winning the right to host the 2015 world championships in the United States, attracting more long-distance runners in order to grow membership 30 percent by 2012, and moving marketing and communications employees from Indianapolis to New York.
“We need to retake our rightful place as a major American sport,” Logan said, “which incidentally participates in the Olympics.”
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