AUDIO & TRANSCRIPT: September 2026 USOPC Leadership Press Briefing

Sarah Hirshland:

Wonderful. Thank you, Gene. And good morning or afternoon to everyone. I'll add my thanks for taking time to be with us today. Assembly week is always busy for us, but it is really great to be together. We are in daily, constant communication across all the entities and organizations in our movement, but the opportunity to be in person is just so valuable and the relationships strengthen and the dialogue becomes more candid and more productive. We also had an opportunity last night to celebrate our annual award winners, and it was an incredible evening. We were thrilled to celebrate with all of them, and I want to thank them for their dedication to the Olympic and Paralympic movements. As you all know, the summer has kicked off an exciting stretch for Team USA. You heard Gene reference his experience around the World Athletics. It is giving us a chance to get a really good look at many of the athletes that we expect to contend for the team in Los Angeles 2028. While there are way too many highlights to cover, I want to encourage all of you to follow along with the action on our Team USA channels and just mention a couple of things.

I did have the chance to be in Los Angeles for the Pan Pacific Championships in August, and I want to give that a special mention. It was a really spectacular event and a wonderful preview of the energy Team USA and the city will bring in 2028. Among the many great performances across the board, I was particularly struck by the excellence and camaraderie of our women's swimming team. We saw world records and some dominating swims and so much to be excited about in an increasingly competitive sport. On this trajectory, it is clear this group is poised to do something pretty spectacular in Los Angeles. Following that was the Para Pan Pacific Championships, also hosted in the LA area. This was the first major international meet in the qualification window for the Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Six world records fell across the three-day meet, Team USA being responsible for three of them. As you can imagine, we're feeling quite optimistic about that trajectory.

We've seen incredible performances already this year from our rowing team, our wrestlers, our women's basketball recently, and just last weekend, our men's artistic gymnastics team was here in Colorado Springs where I had an opportunity to spend some time with them as they actually had a bit of an intrasquad competition as they're preparing for the upcoming world championships. And I can tell you the competition within Team USA is fierce and we can't wait to see what happens when they arrive on the international stage. Turning to the college sports landscape, which remains a top priority for us, for college athletes, and certainly for all of the universities and colleges around the country, we are quite pleased by the progress in the Senate of the Protect College Sports Act and anticipate more progress to come just next week.

Our focus throughout has been on preserving Olympic and Paralympic sport on campus and protecting that critical primary development pathway for so many of our athletes, both current and future. Importantly, this bill goes a long way toward protecting current scholarship and roster levels and ensuring that Olympic and Paralympic sport on campus is sustained. I need to offer my thanks because there has been a great deal of time and effort and collaboration dedicated to this. To the college and university partners who've made supporting Olympic and Paralympic sport a priority, and there are many, that commitment to broad-based sport makes our community better and makes Team USA stronger. To our Team USA Athletes' Commission, our NGB Council, and our Collegiate Advisory Council, who have all given countless time and effort to helping outline both the issues and compromising to find solutions throughout this process. And to the legislators who've given this time and effort that it deserved. There were many obstacles in the way and some remain, but they persevered because they see that the system needs stabilization. Special thanks to Senators Cruz and Cantwell for their leadership and to Senators Curtis and Hickenlooper who actively listened to the needs of our community with extensive depth and detail throughout this process. And as you know, President Trump convened leaders around this important issue long ago and that convening really opened important dialogue and discussions around compromise that have been central to the success to date. We know there's much work still to do. We stand ready to partner in support of the community and to advocate for a system that best serves the athletes of Team USA.

In additional college news, earlier this week, California Assembly Bill 2436 authored by Assembly member Mike Fong was signed into law by Governor Newsom. This law permanently extends in-state tuition eligibility for Team USA athletes training in California by removing the current 2032 sunset. This bill helps elite athletes pursue their degrees while they train and it strengthens California's standing as a premier destination for education and Olympic-level athletes. With the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games approaching, this bill shows that the state's commitment to these elite Team USA athletes will last well beyond the games and help provide a strong pipeline for our future and we're grateful to the state for that work.

I also want to touch on where things stand on the revenue side. We are extremely pleased to share that our financial outlook is strong. This has been achieved through a combination of a philanthropic program that is setting new and bigger goals and also a robust joint LA28 Team USA commercial engine that continues to drive growth and excitement, attracting leading brands, sophisticated marketers and long-term partnerships. We will continue to support philanthropic growth as a critical avenue of support for decades to come and as we look to maximize the opportunity for athletes and NGBs ahead of LA28, we're also considering the future and continually looking for ways to generate greater resources in support of our mission through Utah and beyond.

As always, I like to highlight the work of the organization against our mission of supporting athletes and we make listening to athletes and feedback an important part of our work and our focus. We collect athlete feedback both during games and outside of that window and the information we receive is incredibly valuable to us as we evaluate both our past performance and we plan to provide even greater athlete support and services in the future. We're evolving from periodic surveys to a year-round listening approach, bringing together athlete voices and experiences to better understand needs across the life cycle and to inform our future actions. This is what we're hearing. The relationship with athletes is strengthening, trust is growing, pride and satisfaction are reaching new heights, and athletes increasingly understand how to access the support and resources that are available to them. Athletes have reported their highest measured levels of satisfaction with the USOPC and the highest level of pride in their achievements as Team USA athletes that we've seen in several years. We're hearing consistent signals around financial stability, access to health and performance resources, career and future planning support, and continued clearer navigation of information and resources within our complex system. Across the life cycle, athletes are asking for a more complete and accessible support system.Help me navigate what I need when I need it, and make it easier to find. Simply put. As we continue to evolve the athlete listening strategy, we will continue to improve our capacity to receive feedback and to continue to act on that feedback in partnership with our NGBs.

Before I close, I want to take a moment to remember Colin Hilton, our friend and president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation. Colin led that foundation for more than two decades and his work kept the legacy of the 2002 Salt Lake Games alive through the venues that served the community and helped make Utah the winter sports hub that it is today. He was also deeply engaged with Utah 2034 and his knowledge of those venues and that community was instrumental as the state prepares to host again. Our thoughts are with his family, his colleagues at the foundation and the entire Utah Olympic community.

His legacy certainly lives on with us and in the spirit of the Utah 2034 Games. I'll close there, and thank you again for being here, and hand it back to Jon.

Jon Mason:

Great. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Gene. We can now go ahead and open the line to questions for the remainder of our time. Thank you.

Moderator:

We'll take our first question from Rachel Axon with Sports Business Journal. Your line is open.

Rachel Axon:

Hi, Gene and Sarah. Thanks for taking the time. Sarah, to follow up on your comments on the Protect College Sports Act, a couple questions. Why do those protections that you mentioned on roster spots and scholarships seem sufficient to you? And what concerns, if any, do you have about schools either applying for waivers as allowed by what the bill would allow or redistributing those numbers away from Olympic sports, so eliminating an Olympic sport, but keeping the numbers the same for something that's not in your pipeline?

Sarah Hirshland:

Well, look, I mean, Rachel, at the end of the day, I would say a couple things. We've taken a variety of, I'll call them advocacy roles on all of the legislation that's been introduced over time from the SCORE Act down across many bills and ultimately the PCSA. And as you know, the legislative process is one of compromise. So if we were writing the law, would it read exactly as it does today? Probably not, but we do feel like this takes a very important step forward in protecting broad-based sport on campus. And of course, our interests are to ensure that that is today's Olympic and Paralympic sports, but we also are incredible advocates for and believers that broad-based sport is at the core here. The Olympic and Paralympic programs will evolve over time as they should, and our role is to ensure that as the demand is there and the interest from, in this case, collegiate or high school-aged athletes is there, that our education system is providing opportunities for those athletes to continue to train and shine and ultimately rise to the level of being elite performers on behalf of Team USA.

So the bill makes very important progress. I don't think any of us, whether legislators, individuals in our community, the collegiate community or elsewhere, feel like this will accomplish and solve all of the problems, but this is an important step forward and it's that reason that we support it.

Moderator:

We'll take our next question from Lisa Roche with Deseret News. Your line is open.

Lisa Roche:

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. This is for Gene and Sarah. I'm wondering what, if any, interaction you had with the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, here on this recent trip to the United States that included the stop in Utah, and also more broadly, what the value is of her coming to a U.S. Olympic host city is? Thank you.

Gene Sykes:

Great. Good question. I'll take that. I spoke with Kirsty and her team before they came here. This was sort of a last-minute decision. She'd been in Nagoya, Japan for the Asian Games on her way back and decided to come through the United States and stop in Salt Lake. It turned out to be the day of our board meeting, so it was impossible for either Sarah or for me to be there physically with her, but that's okay. We had known exactly what they wanted to do. She spent quite a bit of time meeting people around the community. She met political leaders in the state, people who have a lot of vested interest. As you know, Lisa, you're right there. I think she was really pleased to meet so many community groups and school children and just to see many years ahead of the games how engaged Utah really is in preparation for the Games. So my reports were it was an astounding success and we're very pleased to make sure she sees the breadth of excitement and enthusiasm about our hosting responsibilities.

Moderator:

We'll take our next question from Rich Perelman with The Sports Examiner. Your line is open.

Rich Perelman:

Thank you. Good morning from the California desert. This is for Sarah, I think. I wanted to get a comment on the status of two National Governing Bodies that are in some transition or turmoil: badminton, which is facing bankruptcy due to a large judgment against it, and biathlon, which has walked away, backed away from a tie-up with U.S. Ski & Snowboard. I'd like to have a comment on how the USOPC sees the status of these two governing bodies. Thank you.

Sarah Hirshland:

Sure, Rich. Thanks for the question. I think you're aware badminton was essentially decertified, so technically we would not consider badminton a National Governing Body under our certification program today. That organization has been in severe distress for some time, unable to meet the certification parameters and compliance parameters that they're required to meet to sit in that position. We've had extensive conversations with the Badminton World Federation in attempts to collaborate with them to ensure that there is a strong sport organization in the United States to support that sport. That remains our goal, and we are continuing those conversations with BWF to try to identify individuals and ultimately an organizational structure that can provide strong support to individuals in badminton, frankly, at all levels, at the recreational level on up to the elite level. That's a work in progress, and that's where we are. As it relates to biathlon, very distinct situation, a strong sport organization, albeit one of the smaller organizations in terms of financial and human resources, and a sport that is a bit of a niche sport in our country, although enormous in other parts of the world.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard, as you know, is one of the larger National Governing Bodies, whether summer or winter, and has really seen incredible growth in the last few years and strength in both the capacity and the capability of the organization. The motivation in those discussions was: Can U.S. Ski & Snowboard be a reliable partner to U.S. Biathlon in leveraging their scale, their efficiencies, their expertise, and their sophistication to help drive the sport of biathlon forward. As you know, there were discussions over many months about this. Overall, I think there are some in the biathlon community who support that concept and were quite excited about it and engaged in that exploration and others who had grave concerns. At this point, those conversations I think have at least been put on hold, whether completely eliminated or not, I think time will tell, but certainly put on hold as there just wasn't enough positive alignment among the communities for that to go forward. And so I think they've put it on ice for now.

Moderator:

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your keypad now. We'll move next to James Rainey with Los Angeles Times. Your line is open.

James Rainey:

Hey, thanks for doing this. This is for Gene. As you folks know, leaders in the government here in Southern California are continuing to express concern about the lack of progress from the Trump administration, from Congress on disbursing the money that they say they desperately need to provide security and transportation for the Games in 2028 here in Los Angeles. I wonder how you feel about the progress on funding those two imperatives, and could you give specifics as to what's provoking your confidence or lack of confidence? Thanks.

Gene Sykes:

Okay. I'm happy to take that. First of all, I would start by deferring this question really to the LA28 organizing committee. They're in charge of it. Sarah and I both sit on the executive committee of the board of the LA28 organizing committee, so we're in regular touch with them. They've got a very, very good team. I would say without addressing the specifics of your question, both Sarah and I have had extensive interaction with the Trump administration on other issues related to the 2028 Games and related to our own efforts, and we have found the administration to be forthright and dependable and very motivated to see the games be successful. So while I can't really comment on the specifics, I will say that the orientation of the administration is very forward-leaning.

Moderator:

And we'll take our next question from Joe Donahue with Birds Nest Media. Your line is open.

Joe Donahue:

Yeah, thank you so much. Question for Sarah probably, although Gene is certainly welcome to chime in here on this. When it comes to the Olympic sports in college and this bill that passed the Senate, how does hosting the Olympic Games twice in the next several years impact interest in Olympic sports and how did that factor into the passage of this bill?

Sarah Hirshland:

You can imagine, we've had a number of conversations here with our respective National Governing Bodies this week about how to think about the participation interest that we anticipate on the backs of the LA28 Games as a result of the data points that we have both anecdotal and sort of factual around the impacts of the '96 Games 30 years ago. You think about the rise, a couple of organizations that were here with us this week said they saw between 25% and 35% growth in participation on the backs of the Atlanta Games, and our job is to be ready to catch that interest. And so the work that our teams are doing now at the individual sport level and us as sort of the convener and aggregator of all of these sports is to think about how do we ensure that in a world where social media is prevalent and information flows so much more freely than it did back in 1996, how do we anticipate incredible interest and capture that interest and provide quick access, easy access and clarity of how do I get involved if this is something that sparks my interest?

I hope that that happens at all levels, including collegiate sport. So I do think that there is a very real possibility that the demand and interest in broad-based sports, let's say the non-main stream, college football and college basketball, will increase on college campuses. That would be absolutely a victory from our perspective. We have to have the schools prepared to accept that interest and be able to support it, of course, hence our conversations and partnership with the community itself, but also our advocacy at the legislative level. We want to make sure that sport continues to remain a really vibrant part of our education system in this country.

Jon Mason:

Great. Thank you so much. And thanks to Gene and Sarah for their time this morning. Thanks to all of you for joining us today. We will post the recording and transcript of this call on USOPC.org as soon as we have them. As a reminder, the media accreditation portal for LA28 is open. We have seen a huge response already, so thank you to those who have already put in their requests. The initial expression of interest deadline is Oct. 23. So be sure to enter your request by then. There's more information available on our LA28 media hub on USOPC.org. More information and a link to the portal can be found there. You can also reach out directly to any of us on the comms team with questions or issues. That's it for us. Thanks so much. Have a great day and have a great weekend.