The chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said the board has shared its concerns about LA Olympic leader Casey Wasserman with that organizing committee's board and that the USOPC is “closely monitoring the impact on our community.”
Wasserman put his talent agency up for sale in February, shortly after the release of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation that included flirtatious emails between Wasserman and Epstein's confidant,
Ghislaine Maxwell, from more than 20 years ago.
USOPC chair Gene Sykes said the federation's board of directors discussed the issue at its quarterly meeting Wednesday and that “we take the concern seriously.” There has been no move to remove Wasserman from his role in leading the Olympic effort. Decisions about Wasserman's future are up to LA's board, not the USOPC's.
LA organizers said they had no comment about the USOPC meeting.
The LA committee previously said it investigated Wasserman's relationship with Maxwell, found the relationship “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented” in the Epstein files and concluded he “should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games.”
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking and abuse of minors. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Though the LA board would make any decision, the USOPC's opinion would likely carry some weight in any discussion. There is crossover between the two; USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and members David Haggerty and Anita DeFrantz are on the LA board.
“We’re stewards of the Olympic and Paralympic movement in the United States, and we’re committed to upholding and consistently demonstrating its values,” Sykes said.
He then shifted to discussing progress LA has made involving public support and corporate interest.
“I think (that's) very encouraging,” Sykes said. “The ongoing committee is executing effectively and we’re very happy to work with them.”
Tickets for the 2028 Olympics went on sale earlier this month, and though organizers have touted more than 1 million for sale for $28, there were none close to that price on its website Wednesday.
The cheapest tickets left among the first major release of tickets, for which people who register are given dedicated time slots to purchase up to 12 seats, were in the $170 range for field hockey preliminaries. The cheapest tickets for an evening of medal events on a night at track and field were $1,100.
In an interview last week with The Associated Press, LA executive Allison Katz-Mayfield acknowledged the wide range of pricing and said cheaper tickets would be released later.
“It goes back to our ethos that we want to ensure there's something for everyone, whether it's someone who just wants to get in the door and experience the Games or someone who has a very specific sport or session and they want to sit in the absolute best seat,” she said. “We tried to approach our inventory mix to replicate that and replicate what we saw in terms of demand from the research we did.”
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
