Jim Scherr Athletes Quotations

We take it seriously. It's our responsibility to help athletes in a performing role to respect our country.

I think it's good. They're expressing themselves in their own individual ways. They're a reflection of who they are. Our athletes have the ability to express themselves freely.

I think we're going to again surprise the world with how the U.S. does. They view our performance in Salt Lake as an aberration. I think our athletes and our national governing bodies, both individually and collectively, are out to prove that their performance wasn't an aberration that we are collectively a winter sports power in the world.

We know the Beijing Games will be like no other; we have a whole new platform and stage. For much of the population of China, our athletes will be the only representation they have of our society.

We got to meet and hang out with all the United States athletes because we all stayed at the same dorm. We got to know guys like Greg Louganis, Carl Lewis and Riddick Bowe, plus athletes from all over the world. It was fantastic experience.

We expect a difficult time in terms of the environment going in but clearly we've got some great athletes to face those challenges.

That's the way it should be. The amount of time and energy we spend on that is a fraction of what it was in the past. Our job here is all about performance and making sure athletes are taken care of at the games.

With their population base and the methods they use to funnel athletes into programs, they are very close to where the Cubans, East Germans and Eastern Europeans used to be.

We will make sure our edicts are followed to the highest degree. And overall, we've had almost all our athletes and teams do that. It's unfortunate that a few athletes have colored the rest of the delegation.

That was absolutely improper and something we have taken great measures to have our athletes not do,

As a result, America's skeleton athletes have had to deal with an unnecessary distraction during their preparation for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, and that is unacceptable.

Equally troubling is the manner by which this matter, and others, has been handled by the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, which long ago could have taken steps to address and correct this situation. As a result, America's skeleton athletes have had to deal with an unnecessary distraction during their preparation for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, and that is unacceptable.

We think there's an opportunity for a performance that could come close to or match what the athletes achieved in Salt Lake City. We hope they'll be able to achieve at that level. We'll tell you after the games how we did.

The United States Olympic Committee is pleased to work with Visa to provide the U.S. delegation of athletes, coaches and staff with a tool that will simplify all their financial transactions and needs during the Olympic Winter Games. These easy-to-use cards provide tremendous advantages. We are thrilled U.S. Team Olympic sponsors, Visa and Bank of America, have come together to provide these cards to athletes and operational staff during a busy time.

In Salt Lake City, we had a wonderful opportunity to participate on our home soil. We had a home crowd and a friendly environment. We were in the same time zone or similar time zone to where the athletes trained. You're eating home-cooked meals with friends and family. And I think familiarity with the venues helped as well.

Clearly, we didn't achieve to the level of our expectations coming to the Games, which were very high coming out of Salt Lake and were high because of the quality efforts of the athletes throughout this four-year period.

They didn't mean any disrespect. They were excited but I think those athletes would do things differently now.