USOC Apology

The press was all over it at the Olympics, but chances are you will never hear them follow up with what happened afterwards…

Sarah Hammer, Booby Lea, Jennie Reed and Mike Friedman are four cyclists I’ve written about recently. They were humiliated by the United States Olympic Committee when they were publicly harassed by the Organization for wearing carbon filtration masks in Beijing provided and recommended by the USOC’s own physicians. In my last Blog about them, I suggested the USOC owed the riders a public apology.

Well, it wasn’t public – or at least did not garner even a blip of attention from the press compared to the incident itself - but Cyclingnews.com is reporting this morning that USOC Chief Executive, Jim Scherr sent an apology in the form of a letter to each of the four cyclists saying that there was “confusion or a misunderstanding.” A spokesman for the USOC went further to say the situation could have been handled better.

Quoting Sarah Hammer from the article, “They treated us like we were just stupid athletes and like we didn’t matter.” Sarah, I think you all proved in your handling of this debacle that you are far from just stupid athletes. Your approach was respectful, dignified, calculated, mature, and successful. It’s just too bad the USOC couldn’t have shown the same poise in the masked face of adversity.

The Olympics: Masking the Controversy

Here, wear this mask. OK, now apologize for wearing this mask.


I’ve met one of the 4 Olympic cyclists who are now infamous for wearing black masks as they arrived at the Beijing airport. I was introduced to Mike Friedman by a mutual friend on a camping trip with my then team, Team Fuji, outside of Brevard, NC. I feel sure he would not recognize my face today, but he may remember that trip. He had just signed his first pro contract with TIAA-CREF. I remember being so impressed that I was camping with a pro cyclist (a short aside: I would soon learn that I was camping that weekend with several pro cyclists, men and women and would realize quickly that cycling is different from other sports in that respect – the pros are very accessible and the community is very tight knit. It’s a lovely thing.).

I was brand new to road racing and had just joined Team Fuji. I didn’t know anyone I was camping with save for Christina DeKraay and our friend Stephen. I remember Mike as a humble guy, clearly uncomfortable with my questions about his newly acquired contract. I have followed Mike’s career since that trip and enjoyed watching his rise to an Olympic Athlete. So, why do I bring this up?

Because Mike and his compatriots (Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed and Bobby Lea) got a raw deal about the masks they wore in Beijing. Let’s forget the fact that these athletes were doing what many of China’s own citizens do daily. Instead, let's look closer at The United States Olympic Committee. After the incident, the USOC's Steven Rousch called the athletes a disgrace and then forced them to draft an apology or risk being removed from the Games (how very Totalitarian of him). The really, really shitty and ironic thing is it was the USOC who provided the masks. And it was the USOC’s Chief Physiologist, Dr. Randy Wilbur, who recommended the athletes wear those masks in a polluted environment when not training. So, Mike and his buddies were doing as they were told and then got slapped in the face by the very people who told them to do it. Instead of coming to thier defense, the USOC left the 4 out in the cold to bear the burden of public harassment on a global scale by themselves - each of them in their first ever Olympic Games.

The USOC really botched the handling of the matter. Mike, Sarah, Jennie and Bobby deserve a public apology.