Munich Official for 2018 Olympics; U.S. Sports Leaders Slam USOC

Thomas Bach, head of the German NOC and IOC vice president, and Christian Ude, Lord Mayor of Munich. (Munich 2018)(ATR) Munich officially launches its 2018 Winter Olympic bid promising to set new Olympic standards in ecology and legacy concepts.

Senior bid officials, including joint managing directors Richard Adam and Bernhard Schwank, registered Munich as an applicant city for the Olympics by presenting documents to the IOC on Wednesday. It took place on the sidelines of the IOC Session in Copenhagen.

Letters were signed by Thomas Bach, president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, and the NOC’s general director Michael Vesper, as well as the Lord Mayor of the Bavarian capital, Christian Ude.

“The starting gun has been fired, Munich has registered itself for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” said Bach, who is also an IOC vice president.

“We are delighted that Munich is entering the race with a compact, innovative and enduring concept. The sound of the excitement for the bid now needs to spread to the people.”

Ude added: “We want to set new Olympic standards with our concept of ecology and legacy.”

National Olympic committees have until Oct. 15 to nominate applicant cities. The French and Korean NOCs are expected to lodge applications for PyeongChang and Annecy respectively in the coming days.

Under Munich’s bid plans, the city and regions of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Schönau a. Königssee would host 2018 Games events.

Bid leaders claim there is support for Munich 2018 at every political level, in particular from the federal government in Berlin, the regional government in Bavaria as well as the conference of all German prime ministers of the 16 ‘Bundesländer’.

Over the coming months, the bid committee will focus on enhancing its bid concept and signing new sponsors to raise the nearly $40 million required for the 21-month campaign. Last week, the bid partnered with Deloitte Germany, which will advise on organizational and budgetary issues.

Early next year, Munich 2018 will submit its applicant city file – essentially responses to a detailed IOC questionnaire. A comprehensive bid dossier is due with the IOC by the end of 2010.

Munich aims to become the only summer and winter Olympic host city; it staged the Summer Games in 1972. The IOC will announce the winning city in July 2011.

NGBs Question USOC leadership

Skip Gilbert, the CEO of USA Triathlon, is the latest figure to publically question the abilities of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s leaders in the aftermath of Chicago’s first-round exit in the IOC vote on the 2016 Olympic host.

Gilbert called on USOC Acting chief executive Stephanie Streeter to immediately resign and put chairman Larry Probst in the hot seat.

The Association of Chief Executives for Sport (ACES) on Wednesday passed a no-confidence vote in the USOC’s two leaders. It followed a survey of the 46 chief executives of the U.S. National Governing Bodies (NGBs). The results were highly critical of the USOC's direction and the abilities of its leadership.

“Events over the past six months have caused the NGBs to lose faith in the USOC’s leadership,” Gilbert said in a teleconference with reporters.

“The U.S. Olympic family has tried faithfully to muffle its deep concerns about the decisions and strategies made by the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors, USA Triathlon CEO Skip Gilbert is calling for a change in USOC leadership. (USA Triathlon) but we can no longer stand by and watch.”

Streeter is set to resign her position after a permanent CEO is found. But Gilbert demands that she steps down immediately so the USOC can focus on building relationships at the Vancouver 2010 Games.

“Realistically if you look at what happened in Copenhagen, the time for the USOC to step forward and start to drive for some international contacts and relationships is now,” he said.

In the survey, the ACES membership voted 40-0 when in a no-confidence vote on Streeter. All but two of 41 members who voted then declared Streeter was not qualified for the Acting CEO position.

“There is unanimous vote of no-confidence in her ability to be the leader of the United States Olympic Committee. If that is the case then we must ask ourselves 'why let her continue?',” Gilbert said.

Gilbert also questioned Probst's leadership abilities, claiming the USOC chair did not have the qualifications to be “a visionary leader of the Olympic Movement with the United States.”

“If you look at the shortcomings the we feel that Larry brought to the table – no sport experience, no experience within the Olympic Movement, no international contacts to drive the relationships of our global partners – those are pretty significant gaps in the ability of the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee.”

But not every U.S. sports federation leader is urging a change in the USOC leadership. USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan said wholesale changes are not necessary in the leadership of the USOC, in an interview with Universal Sports. “Let me go on the record as clearly not advocating changes at the top. Some of my brethren have called for resignations or firings or removals and I'm not one of them,” he said.

Ruling Due on Medals Stripped from Marion Jones

A decision on the reallocation of medals won by disgraced U.S. sprinter Marion Jones at the Sydney 2000 Olympics is due in the coming weeks.

Marion Jone admitted to anti-doping violations in 2007. The IOC said on Thursday that it would decide the fate of Jone's 2000 Sydney medals soon. (Getty Images)

In 2007, Jones was stripped of five medals after admitting to doping at Games-time. She also received a six-month jail term for lying to federal agents.

The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to decide Dec. 18 whether Jones’ relay team mates can keep their medals.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach said a decision on the other medals may be made earlier. “Now that this is dragging on, we decided to look at it case by case. In the coming weeks you may hear some developments,” said the head of the IOC juridical commission.

Speaking to reporters in Copenhagen, Bach added: “We will decide on cases where we do not expect any new information.”

The IOC could yet upgrade Katerina Thanou to gold for the 100-meter dash at the 2000 Games, despite the Greek athlete’s ban for anti-doping rule violations at Athens 2004.

Written by Mark Bisson and Sam Steinberg.