Olympian Remembers U.S. Senate Colleague

(ATR) The last Olympian to serve in the U.S. Senate says John McCain always had the interests of athletes at heart.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who held a seat from Colorado for 12 years, worked with McCain on reforms to the law governing the U.S. Olympic Committee when it faced a leadership meltdown in 2002 to 2003. Campbell competed in judo at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

McCain, who died last weekend at age 81, is being remembered by colleagues like Campbell as one of a kind.McCain was in his sixth term as a senator from Arizona and at one time was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee which has oversight of the USOC. McCain will be honored with three days of ceremonies followed by burial at the U.S. Naval Academy Sept. 2.

"It’s a real loss to our country," Campbell tells Around the Rings from his home in southeastern Colorado.

"We had our differences over a bill he was introducing about the Olympics at one time. I told him that being friends with him was like hugging at cactus. No matter how delicate you are, you still get stuck," he said about his Republican colleague.

McCain chaired a 2003 hearing of the Commerce committee at a time when the USOC was in the midst of conflict between an unwieldy board of directors and a CEO with ethical issues. The two hour session left McCain and his colleagues unhappy with the management malaise.

"He wasn’t, I wasn’t and Ted Stevens wasn’t," Campbell mentioning Ted Stevens, the Alaskan Senator whose name is attached to the U.S. Amateur Sports Act governing the USOC.

"Senator McCain called that hearing because we were getting letters and calls from people complaining of harassment and featherbedding," says Campbell, a term he applies to travel spending "on five-star hotels by Olympic committee officials". As a senator from Colorado, home to the USOC headquarters, Campbell always maintained a critical eye on operations in Colorado Springs.

The hearing was a prelude to changes in the law that resulted in the current board structure used by the USOC.

McCain was known for his maverick style, which might also apply to Campbell, now 85. Campbell loved to ride big motorcycles and still calls himself a "gearhead". He’s a leader in the Cheyenne Nation and lives on a reservation. Campbell says his main business is the Native American jewelry company he founded before going into politics. Starting out as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Campbell switched to the Republican party as a Senator.

McCain was the first to raise the question of whether federal spending on Olympic security for the Salt Lake City Olympics was justified. Campbell sided with McCain, calling the spending "a taxpayer bailout".

Campbell complains about the management of the USOC in 2018, roiled by the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. He suggests term limits for USOC board members (they are now limited to two terms). He says board members should not be serving on other corporate boards, which he calls "an unholy alliance".

Campbell, a veteran of the Korean War, notes that fewer and fewer members of the Senate are military veterans, like he and McCain. He makes that point when asked about the absence of Olympians in the U.S. Congress.

When Campbell left the Senate in 2004 he was the only Olympian in both houses. There haven’t been many others. Through the years, about a half dozen Olympians have served in the house, three in the senate.

"Olympians are more than athletes, they develop a rapport for dealing with people in other parts of the world," explaining why more of them should enter politics.

"In my years after competition I stayed in touch with people in Japan, Holland, other places. You compete against each other, you try to beat each other. But when the Games are over, you have some great friends," says Campbell.

Reported by Ed Hula.