USOC will apologize to athletes for treatment

By Philip Hersh |Tribune reporter

The U.S. Olympic Committee is drafting a letter of apology to the four Olympic cyclists whom USOC officials publicly condemned for wearing anti-pollution masks upon their Aug. 5 arrival at Beijing's international airport.

The Tribune has learned the USOC will admit being wrong in the way the matter was handled.

USOC officials had demanded the athletes apologize to the Chinese because the cyclist's actions were an affront to China's efforts to improve air quality for the Summer Games.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel confirmed the USOC will send a letter to the athletes "acknowledging some aspects of the situation could have been handled differently and better."

The athletes' attorney, Christopher Campbell of the Alameda, Calif., firm Chapman & Intrieri, said Tuesday he was "hopeful the athletes would be cleared and get a letter of apology."

Campbell and three of the cyclists, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed of California and Bobby Lea of Pennsylvania, discussed the case with USOC chief executive Jim Scherr in a Tuesday conference call. The fourth cyclist, Mike Friedman of Pittsburgh, had spoken Monday with Scherr.

"It was very cathartic for the athletes to express to Jim what they had gone through (after the USOC criticized them)," Campbell said.

In a letter sent last week to the USOC Athletes Advisory Council, Campbell alleged USOC officials berated the athletes before telling them they risked being expelled from the Summer Games if they did not apologize.

The USOC letter to the athletes will acknowledge, among other things, it was a mistake to have no athlete representative present when USOC officials asked for the apology. The letter likely also will note the USOC's failure to have one of its staff members at the airport to advise the athletes to take off the masks.

The athletes said USOC sports physiologist Randy Wilber had suggested they wear the masks, which were commissioned by the USOC, "from the minute they step foot in Beijing until they begin competing."

Campbell's letter asked the USOC to make a public apology for the "inappropriate conduct" of its staff, an "unequivocal statement" that the athletes had done nothing wrong and "systematic assurance" that future Olympians will not face similar treatment.

The athletes felt their Olympic performances were negatively affected by the public criticism, which they said included hate mail.

Hammer, a two-time world champion in individual pursuit, lost in the first of the elimination rounds at Beijing. Reed, 2008 world bronze medalist in match sprint, was seventh.

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