Changes for USOC: Communications Chief Named, Ctvrtlik Out as VP

Sandusky to Colorado Springs

The U.S. Olympic Committee names Patrick Sandusky as acting communications officer. Sandusky, who was chief of communications for Chicago 2016, will begin work Oct. 26 and is committed through the Vancouver Paralympics next March.

Sandusky fills a post left open during the critical final months of the USOC’s involvement with the Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Sandusky tells Around the Rings he is “excited” about taking the new post and says he hopes hecould remain in a permanent capacity. He admits that will hinge on the new permanent CEO who is supposed to be hired at the end of the year.

Sandusky, 34, spent 10 years with public relations firm Hill and Knowlton where he was based in London and Chicago. At the firm he worked on the bid campaigns of Beijing for 2008 and London 2012.

He succeeds Darryl Seibel at the USOC who left in May to pursue other business opportunities and provide some assistance to the Chicago bid.

Ctvrtlik Out at USOC International Relations Office

As the U.S. Olympic Committee turns its attention to its international image, Bob Ctvrtlik will not be part of the international relations team. Ctvrtlik, named vice president international last year to assist with the Chicago bid, resigned his post in July in a move that has yet to be publicized officially by the USOC.

Ctvrtlik says he needed to resign his unpaid USOC post because he had taken a paid position with the Chicago bid as vice chair, a move required by USOC ethics rules.

He says the change was not publicly revealed to avoid confusion about his involvement with the bid. He says his job remained the same as his USOC position, promoting the Chicago bid at the international level.

Ctvrtlik did identify himself as vice chair for Chicago 2016 during the final presentation for the bid at the Copenhagen IOC Session

In an e-mail to Around the Rings last week, USOC spokeswoman Lindsay Hogan confirmed Ctvrtlik’s account of the change.

“We wanted to make sure were not creating any unnecessary confusion in the mind of people who worked with Bob, especially when in reality his job responsibilities remained the same,” she writes.

But the USOC has done little to correct the record, well after the fact. Just days ago, a report in USA Today about Chicago’s Olympic demise still misidentifies Ctvrtlik as a USOC officer.

With Ctvrtlik out of the picture, the USOC also loses the man who was the committee’s delegate to international meetings, such as the upcoming general assembly for the Pan American Sports Organization in early November in Guadalajara. PASO is one of those international organizations for the Olympic Movement where the U.S. is consistently outflanked by other NOCs. In PASO, for example, Brazil edged the U.S. in 2002 for the 2007 Pan American Games whichRio de Janeiro used as a springboard for its successful Olympic bid.

Despite two consecutive failures for the U.S. to win the Summer Games, the current international relations department of the USOC has won plaudits for increasing the presence of the committee globally.

Written by Ed Hula .For general comments or questions, click here .