There’s some not good stuff happening. It feels like every few days I should write about one of these topics, and I just fall further behind. So, for those that care, here’s a summary of what’s not going right in the past few days.
Doing Bad Pays at the USO(P)C
In the past week we found out what the then USOC, recently rebranded USOPC, gave Scott Blackmun to go away. The figure is staggering at 2.4 million.
This man that in any fair world should be eternally grateful that the one consequence of his malfeasance/lack of humanity/coverup is that he lost his grossly overpaid job. Instead, somehow he got a nice fat check for his trouble.
Insiders in the “movement” will cry that this was the best the board can do. To which I say, if this is the best the board can do, they can go too and we can just rebuild Olympic sports from the ground up.
I’ll make a prediction that I’ve made in other posts/podcasts before. When 2020 rolls around, there will be no doubt that we’ve had a full Olympic cycle where one of the NGBs, USA Gymnastics, has been way worse than incompetent in their management of their sport.
Our gymnasts will still be world class, which is what we’re supposed to forgive these NGBs their sins for achieving. And it will be obvious that we don’t need to spend money on NGBs (or the USOPC) as they exist today to achieve Olympic success.
Actually, now I’m really going at this. Can’t we already agree that USAG is actually impediment to the success of gymnasts, rather than an aid? They crushed the world in 2016 with the backing of a NGB that allowed hundred of athletes to be abused by one man, and likely thousands of others to be abused in some shape or form by thousands of others.
ASCA has a new leader chosen
So ASCA seems like they might actually move on from John Leonard. They’ve named a successor in Steve Roush, whose resume is really impressive to a certain type of person. Certainly not me, but definitely to the people who made this decision.
I don’t know what I would have been excited about, but maybe Steve Roush won’t be as terrible as John Leonard so perhaps that’s that? In the meantime, I still contend that ASCA is a waste of money. I’ll let you know later this fall if I feel any differently about any other coaching organization.
Mark Hill is employed as a College Swim Coach again
Mark Hill, best known for appearing on the Swim Brief podcast one time and then never being heard from again, is going to be the head coach of Washington College.
This is terrible news because I base my self-worth in comparison to the achievements of others and it made me feel better when Mark was out of the college coaching game just like me. It also means he probably won’t hang out with me again spontaneously like that one time he dropped by and my son was just a few weeks old.
We went out to lunch and then I came home and tried to put cranky Jacob to bed. He would not comply, and I kept giving him a “shh shh shh”. Mark brought his tone softer and softer until nothing he was saying was at all audible, but he continued to try and communicate with me nonetheless. He is nothing if not dedicated.
Just kidding about all of the above, except for the baby story that was 100% real, and congrats to Mark.