USATF targets 30 medals in 2012

Dec 8, 2008 - 5:33 PM NEW YORK (Ticker) - USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan has set a target of 30 medals from his sport at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Track and field athletes contributed 23 of the 110 medals won by Team USA at this summer's Beijing Olympics to finish the Games as the leading country in the sport with seven gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals.

Yet the total figure was two less than the U.S. track and field team achieved at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Logan formed a High Performance Audit Panel to assess a way forward for his sport at the elite level.

Logan, who succeeded Craig Masback as chief executive of the sport's national governing body (NGB) just prior to this summer's Olympics in Beijing, laid out his objectives for the organization during his address to the USATF Closing General Session at the organization's 2008 Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada, on Sunday.

Logan said he also wants USATF to be operating on a $30 million budget by 2012, to have increased membership by 30 per cent and to host the 2015 IAAF World Outdoor Championships.

"We know that unless we reach for the stars we will not get off the ground," Logan told delegates in a speech that was posted on the usatf.org web site. "Accordingly, we now will announce to the world that we are going to take our 'A' game to London in 2012.

"Our goal: 30 clean medals in London. We will expeditiously convert the recommendations of our High Performance Audit Panel into an action plan. We will execute the action plan professionally, develop the resources to implement it and be resolute about our goal. Thirty clean medals in London."

Logan said he wanted to build USATF's membership by bringing together the various elements of his sport, particularly the "community of passionate long distance runners".

"We must find the way to connect the disparate parts of this community and provide it with needed services," the USATF CEO said. "Uniform standards, statistics and rankings are obvious areas in which we can play a role. Increased safety and proficiency in the management of races is another.

"We can and should apply newer technologies such as live streaming of races in order to propagate interest and following. Finally, we should create compelling reasons for more long distance runners to be members of USATF. Accordingly, we are challenging ourselves to grow our membership by 30 per cent by the year 2012."

Logan also mapped out his plan to almost double USATF's budget from $16 million to $30 million by 2012.

"We know we are underestimated, undervalued and misunderstood," he said. "We need to retake our rightful place as a major American sport which incidentally participates in the Olympics, rather than being seen solely as an NGB.

"We will take this $16 million business and grow it to a $30 million business by the year 2012. We will forge new partnership alliances and negotiate higher prices for existing sponsorship arrangements. We will do a far better job at getting our compelling stories out to the public through a variety of media platforms."

That could also be achieved by establishing organizational footings on both coasts, he said, including the relocation of marketing and communications personnel from USATF headquarters in Indianapolis to New York in 2009.

Logan added that USATF also needed to establish more credibility in the international track and field community, particularly within world governing body the IAAF.

"To be a true player on the international scene, we must be global in our outlook," he said. "This includes participation in more international competitions with full teams, hiring multicultural, multilingual executives, and becoming more active in our international federation.

"We will not be taken seriously in the corridors if the IAAF until we host an outdoor World Championship competition on our shores. Therefore, we pledge to find both a venue and financing and will successfully bid on the outdoor World Championships for 2015."