Sarah HIrshland

Sarah Hirshland is USOPC chief executive. A guessing game: for how long?

Sarah Hirshland is USOPC chief executive. A guessing game: for how long?

Senior leadership at the International Olympic Committee neither likes nor respects Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

She has little support among some number of key executives who head the 50 national governing bodies here in the United States.

She makes a big show of supporting U.S. Olympic athletes but late last week fired, and unceremoniously, Rick Adams, the one person at the USOPC who knew the most about getting athletes to perform their best at the Olympic Games, Winter and Summer.

A popular behind-the-scenes guessing game: how much longer will Hirshland remain chief executive?

How much longer should she?

'Pray for our world': the disaster of the Trump presidency and, now, the Capitol insurrection

'Pray for our world': the disaster of the Trump presidency and, now, the Capitol insurrection

In June 2017, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee president, held a meeting —tumultuous and all but disastrous — at the White House with Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States.

Details of the meeting, held as the IOC was working its way toward what would be an unprecedented double allocation that September of the Summer Games, Paris for 2024 and Los Angeles for 2028, have remained tightly held. Neither the IOC nor Trump have ever issued a formal statement on the matter. Trump, who posted thousands of times to Twitter before the service banned him permanently on Friday, said nary a word on the site about this particular meeting.

After the meeting broke up that June afternoon, it can be revealed, Bach turned to his mobile phone. Multiple sources confirm he said these words: “Pray for our world.”

'Welcome back America': Does USOPC know world's love for American idea, and ideal?

'Welcome back America': Does USOPC know world's love for American idea, and ideal?

Joe Biden, addressing the nation for the first time Saturday night as president-elect, said it was time to heal and asserted, “We must restore the soul of America.”

Indeed. With the elephant in the room returning to golf in his golden Floridian enclave, we breathe fresh air, a collective sigh of relief. Moreover, it is time for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee to play what should be its vital part in deeply recommitting and reconnecting all Americans to truly be great again.

And to be what the world wants America to be — an ideal. The world loves the idea of America. That is the responsibility of the USOPC: to uphold and advance the best of the American ideas and ideals.

Now comes the question: can it be, can it do those things?

If you ask the rest of the world, “What is the vision of the USOPC,” the answer would be, “We don’t know.” It’s true. Nobody knows. Surely, too, someone would say, “Why should we care?”

Because this is what we have learned over the past four years. Not only is it important to care. It is vital to know what America is and what America stands for.