AUDIO & TRANSCRIPT: December 2025 USOPC Leadership Press Briefing

Below is the audio recording from the U.S Olympic and Paralympic Committee leadership press briefing on Monday, Dec. 15, following the board of directors meeting via teleconference.

AUDIO

Moderator:

Hello and welcome everyone joining today's USOPC Board Briefing Conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. To register to ask a question at any time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please note this call is being recorded. We are standing by if you should need any assistance. It's now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Jon Mason. Please go ahead. 

Jon Mason:

Hi, thank you. Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us. It's obviously a very busy time here as we wrap up this year and with 53 days to the opening of the Milano Cortina Games, that level of activity will only increase. We'll start this call today with remarks from USOPC Chairman Gene Sykes, followed by USOPC CEO, Sarah Hirshland, and then the operator will open the line to questions with the remaining time. So with that, I will hand the line over to Gene. Thank you. 

Gene Sykes:

Thanks Jon, and good morning everyone. Well, we had a busy week last week starting with another very good and very thorough USOPC board meeting on Tuesday in New York. This was our final board meeting of the year and another valuable opportunity to discuss the work of the organization and the Olympic and Paralympic landscape in the United States and globally. With the Milano-Cortina Games now under two months away, we both celebrated the coming games and we had the opportunity to receive updates on prep and planning, as well as a sport overview. Looking further out, we have the incredible honor and opportunity of serving as the host NOC twice in one decade. When we welcome the world to LA28 and Utah 2034, it will be an amazing decade of sports. So I'll start things off today by providing you an overview of what we discussed in the board meeting and then ask Sarah to give an update as well. As always, we appreciate your taking the time to join us.

Following our board meeting on Tuesday, I traveled to Lausanne to attend the Olympic Summit. I traveled to Lausanne to attend the Olympic Summit meetings at the invitation of IOC President Kirsty Coventry. President Coventry continues to lead with clarity and while pushing membership to consider the important topics facing the Olympic Movement, she's an active listener. We tackled a number of wide ranging topics and I want to speak to one of them briefly. We had an important discussion around the principles of participation and political neutrality and the summit supported the IOC Executive Board's recommendation that youth athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport should no longer be restricted in their access to international youth competitions in both individual and team sports events. This will be relevant for the Dakar Youth Olympic Games taking place beginning in the fall in October of 2026. This is not a change in the current existing status of Russian and Belarusian athletes as it relates to the Olympic Games or senior competition. They remain suspended. This consideration is seen as a step that supports the rights of athletes to compete without interference of their government, nor to be blocked from competing on account in the decisions of their government. And as I think we can all agree, youth athletes ages 17 and under are not people who have been engaged directly in the political landscape in any of these controversies and issues that have taken place around the world. It was recognized that the implementation by the stakeholders will take some time. There are a lot of people involved in international sport. There are a number of youth events around the world.

Let me switch to some things that relate to our own USOPC direct engagement. We had USOPC representatives attend the 2025 World Conference on doping in sport, which took place in Busan in South Korea. It was a gathering of sports leaders from around the world representing all sectors of the sports ecosystem, but bound by a singular commitment to a strong and unified anti-doping effort. We owe that to the current generation of athletes and fans and we owe it to the future generations as well. The USOPC partners and supports the work of USADA and its leader Travis Tygart in providing us athletes with education and service that make participation and adherence to the anti-doping code as transparent and streamlined as possible. At the same time, we want to emphasize the importance of a collaborative and effective global infrastructure governed by WADA that serves all athletes, while instilling confidence in competitors and fans alike. That's a goal we can all strive for and the USOPC is a partner to all who support this effort. 

Lastly, is a standard procedure for us. We took advantage of our time during our last board meeting of the year to evaluate our overall performance. This being a non-game year might suggest it somehow was not as busy. The reality is quite different, coming off the successful Paris Games with a great deal of momentum and with the Winter Games now less than two months away, the commitment to providing excellent athlete support has never waned. With our continuing work focused on LA28 and Utah 2034, on our relationship with the administration and the U.S. government, and on enhancing our international footprint, the work of the USOPC truly has never stopped. I'm pleased to report that Sarah and her team have performed admirably. The levels performance are very high, as was our commitment to financial stewardship and future planning. We evaluated and approved the 2026 operating plan and budget. We also reviewed an update to the five year strategic plan to position us for 26, 28 and beyond. We feel strongly the USOPC is directing efforts and resources appropriately and in the best interest of Team USA athletes. 

I'd like to acknowledge and pay tribute to a legendary Team USA athlete and USOPC board member Brad Snyder. Brad was recently elected as an at-large member of the governing board of the International Paralympic Committee. This is an incredibly well-deserved honor for Brad and we're very excited to see him play this role in the most important Paralympic organization in the world. Through this process, he demonstrated his passion and commitment to advocacy for Paralympic sport, and for the support of athletes everywhere. We're thrilled for Brad. We know we'll take on this important role with passion and professionalism. On account of this new position, Brad's role on the USOPC board will change slightly. He currently serves as an elected representative of the Team USA Athletes Commission, but will per our board bylaws now have a seat on account of his IPC leadership. Therefore, there's a new spot that opens up for another athlete member of the board who will be selected by the Team USA Athletes Commission. The Athletes Commission will also, per our bylaws, select a Paralympic athlete to fill this role. 

Lastly, I want to give my thanks to my fellow board members. They have a busy and very demanding set of responsibilities elsewhere in life and work both in and out of the world of sport. And I want to honor and appreciate the time and effort they give to making the USOPC the best it can be in service of Team USA, and the Olympic and Paralympic movements. To my friend and colleague Sarah Hirshland, who continues to lead with integrity and foresight, she is a great strategist and she's been a wonderful leader. Congratulations on another strong year. We have every reason to be excited about the upcoming games and the many exciting moments ahead for Team USA. I wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best in the new year. Now over to Sarah. 

Sarah Hirshland:

Thank you Gene, and thank you for those kind words. Good morning everyone. Afternoon for many of you. Thanks for taking time to be with us. Let me echo the sentiment about the commitment of the board for all the work they've done this year, including not only their main board meeting responsibilities, but so many serve on committees and really dedicate an enormous amount of time. But no one more so than Gene, who continues to volunteer so much of his time and effort in support not only of the USOPC, but the global Olympic and Paralympic movements. Thank you, Gene. We are lucky to have you on our team. Last week was indeed a very busy week with year-end board meetings for each of our affiliated entities. Starting with the USOPC board meeting you heard Gene reference, but also followed by our foundation board meeting and then the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic endowment. 

It was great to be together and it's great to see the breadth of expertise and passion for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement, represented across these three distinct but each very important entities. As we close out the year, I want to take just a few minutes to cover off on some important work and share some updates as we look forward to Milan Cortina here in just a few weeks. First, let me start, it is no secret that collegiate sport is a topic that is rightfully top of mind across so many communities, including ours. It speaks to the important place that collegiate athletic holds in this country and frankly, for many around the world. In this environment, the risk for us is that schools cut Olympic sport programs or reduce the resources allocated to them due to the financial pressures that they're facing. Our perspective and our commitment on this topic does not change. Our focus remains on protecting broad-based sport and the Olympic and Paralympic pipeline, and we will continue to actively engage Congress, the administration, the NCAA, individual schools and all the conferences in that effort. We believe strongly there is a solution to be had that honors the athletes and Olympic and Paralympic sport, while also providing for the new revenue sharing landscape and continued NIL growth. 

When we think about commercially our joint LA28 and USOPC team, US Olympic and Paralympic Properties, as we refer to it, USOPP, will close out this year having achieved a really wonderful milestone. USOPP has raised more than two billion through domestic sponsorship and licensing agreements, with nearly a billion dollars in deals signed this year alone. And while the resources are critically important both to Team USA and to the execution of the LA28 games, it is the brands and the stories they will tell that perhaps will have the greatest impact for us. Major brands including Google, Honda, Starbucks, Uber, Delta, Comcast, Intuit, these brands are now connecting with LA28 and Team USA because they see the potential to connect what we all know will be transformational, both around LA28 and the ongoing journey and stories of Team USA athletes. There is still much work to do and I can assure you the team is not resting. But the reality is that this success puts the LA28 games on track to be very successful while building significant commercial value for Team USA for many years to come. We couldn't be more pleased with where we sit. 

At the same time, our foundation continues to successfully connect the athletes of Team USA with great philanthropic community in our country, driving increasing impact around performance, health and wellness and even economic stability for Team USA athletes. Athletes rely on expanded access to sport science, data analytics, elite coaching, high performance training centers, resources that are strengthened through sustained support from Team USA donors and their families. Over the past decade, the foundation has pursued a bold ambition to transform how America supports its athletes and the sports system, and the growth is about more than results. Though the results are impressive in and of themselves. The model works. We're seeing incredible success. We're seeing expansion in our mental health support, financial stability, career transition resources, and next generation high performance innovation, making this sustained investment more impactful and more critical than ever. We are certainly proud of the momentum we have and we feel it's continuing to build, every gift to Team USA matters and we're grateful to the philanthropy of the people in this country. 

Of course, sticking with the foundation topic for a moment. During this campaign, we've been fortunate enough to receive some extraordinary individual gifts like the Steven's a hundred million dollars gift, which is an incredible impact for athletes. For those who don't know, the Stevens Award will provide a hundred thousand dollars to eligible athletes who will be able to access this award 20 years after their qualifying games, or at 45 years of age. This grant can be used for any purpose. In addition, the award will include a hundred thousand dollars guaranteed benefit for their families or their chosen beneficiaries. This 2026 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team for Milan Cortina will be the first team to receive this award and we couldn't be happier about the incredible generosity of Ross Stevens, but also the incredible impact of that commitment. We are now weeks away from these awards and we're feeling the impact among the Team USA community. 

As Gene mentioned, we're now less than two months to the start of the games and we couldn't be more excited about the performance of Team USA athletes. Let me just run through a few performances just over the last couple of weeks. You all know qualification is underway and we're seeing quite a bit of winter sport now. Perhaps most impressive, the incredible return of Lindsey Vonn in St. Moritz back on the podium and with Cortina squarely in her sights. Jordan Stoltz adding more wins to continue his incredible season and trajectory. And I have to mention the performance of the U.S. Women's National Hockey team who defeated Canada four one on Saturday night to sweep the 2025 Rivalry Series. Something neither team has done in the tournament's six year history. These two teams clearly bring out the best in each other and will no doubt be ready to meet again in Milan.

On the Paralympic side, with a little more time before the team is named, we're tracking performance closely and we're thrilled about the performance of our teams and our programs. We have a really good mix of returning veterans and some true future stars all in. We're excited at the way the team is taking shape. We're thrilled with the performance indicators we're seeing, and we're confident we have great things to come from Team USA and Milan Cortina. Now, before we open the line to questions, I do want to recap a special event last week. As part of the US Olympic and Paralympic Endowment gathering, five very important representatives of the U.S. community were honored with awards. Rich Bender, long serving executive director of USA Wrestling was awarded the George M. Steinbrenner III Award for Sport Leadership. Legendary athletes, Tatyana McFadden and Greg Louganis were awarded the William E. Simon Award. Dr. Sean McCann, a longtime member of our USOPC Psychological Services team was awarded the General Douglas MacArthur Exemplary Service Award and Dr. Cheri Blauwet, Paralympic advocate and someone who has given so much to the USOPC and to the IPC, was awarded the William J. Hybl Paralympic Contributor Award. 

This meeting also marks the retirement of our friend and great supporter Bill Hybl, who's not only led the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Endowment as chair, but he has been an incredible supporter of Team USA athletes and a quite influential voice in our community for over three decades. As Bill steps down from his chair role at the endowment, we are thrilled that Susanne Lyons, no stranger to all of us at the USOPC, who has dedicated many years of service to the organization as a board member, board chair, and even interim CEO will succeed Bill Hybl as chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Endowment. Also joining Suzanne on this board is Jair Lynch, a retired gymnast and also a former board member of the USOPC, who is now going to join the endowment board as well. He brings terrific passion and insight to the role. We absolutely cherish the dedication of leaders like Bill, Susanne and Jair. They are critical to our long-term success and they're generous with their time. Again, thank you for the time today. Happy holidays to all of you. And with that, I'll turn it back to Jon and we're happy to answer your questions.

Moderator:

Great, thank you Sarah. Operator, please go ahead and open the line for questions. As always, we ask that you state your and affiliation and out of respect for others on the call. We ask that if you do have a follow-up that you rejoin the queue. So with that, we will send it back to the operator. Thanks. I'll take our first question from Rich Perelman with The Sports Examiner. Please go ahead. Your line is open. 

Rich Perelman:

Hey, thank you. Happy holidays from the California Desert. I think this one is for Sarah. You have NGB recognition situations going on in badminton, cricket, skateboarding and surfing that I'm aware of. Can you tell us where we are with these four possible NGBs? Thank you. 

Sarah Hirshland:

I can Rich, surfing is in the process of an application to be certified. I believe we just had a hearing in that proceeding perhaps just before Thanksgiving. And I think decisions around USA Surfing's application will be made sometime in the spring. My guess is just post Milan Cortina. USA Badminton has been de-certified and so they are no longer a certified National Governing Body. And the support for elite Team USA athletes in that sport is being managed by our internal team here at the USOPC. Cricket you asked about, cricket is an entity that has not been certified as it's a new sport on the program. And so cricket has to essentially meet standards to be considered for certification. As you probably are quite aware, both the ICC and the USOPC have some concerns about where that organization sits relative to its compliance. So there will be additional work to be done there before USA Cricket as it stands today would be in a position to be certified. I think that answers the questions. I can't recall if there was another, but if so, you can flag it. And Rich, we're certainly happy to talk in more detail offline on those. 

Thank you. Our next question comes from Lisa Roche with Deseret News. Please go ahead. Your line is open. 

Lisa Roche:

Thank you. And thank you both for doing this news conference. This is for both Sarah and Gene, I'm just wondering what your reaction is to the less than enthusiastic response about new name and logo for the 2034 Winter Games here in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a place that has always shown great enthusiasm for hosting. We've done our own polling showing it around 80% pretty consistently. But the new logo, the design especially has not been entirely embraced here. I'm just wondering what both of your reactions were to it and what you think of how Utahns are reacting to it, as well as making this a Utah Games versus a Salt Lake City Games. Thank you both. 

Sarah Hirshland:

Hi Lisa, this is Sarah. Thank you for the question and always good to hear from you. I think the reality is, it is important that the state of Utah, who is the signatory to the host city agreement with us and the IOC is reflected in these games and I know that's critically important to many communities, both Salt Lake and outside Salt Lake, who will be very instrumental in the success of these games. So we're excited about Utah as referenced. I think we're absolutely seeing the reality that it is very uncommon for an individual municipality to host the totality of a game that this scale, it makes a lot of sense that the state and many of the communities in the state will be actively engaged and involved. And I think the logo and the positioning reflects that. So it makes a lot of sense to us. 

Thank you. And once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Once again, that is star N one. We will move next with Matt Barnes with NextStar Media Group. Please go ahead. Your line is open. 

Matt Barnes:

Hi, thanks for doing the call guys. Just wondering, we've heard so much in the NHL and USA Hockey, but just your level of concern as we get so close to the game and then the lack of maybe readiness for the two hockey arenas, what is the concern for USA Women's Hockey? We've heard a lot about the men's hockey tournament, but the women have to play in these arenas as well. Just the level of concern on your end as we get near to the games. Thanks. 

Sarah Hirshland:

Yeah, I'll take that this is Sarah. We have no concerns. We have all the confidence in the world that they're going to have venues suitable to their talent. And as I mentioned, we're feeling incredibly excited about the talent coming in both on the women's side, the sled side, and the men's side. All three teams had an incredible 2025, and these are the best athletes in the world. They're ready and excited.