Why Olympics Are Great!

The Olympic games are an unbelievable experience! Bringing all countries together to one location to compete in their various sports, truly an unforgettable experience! From the organizing committee side I learned invaluable lessons about becoming an entrepreneur. When you consider that an Olympic organizing committee goes from a handful of employees to thousands and then back to zero over a 7-year cycle it really is an amazing story and lesson about managing teams of people to come together and achieve a common goal while handling non-stop challenges within the organizing committee. All of the external stakeholders and the internal and external politics its a crash course on everything that goes along with building a great company.

When I had the fortunate experience to work for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games Organizing Committee as well as the Sydney 2000 Olympic Organizing committee and then consult with five more Olympic Games I experienced working in various countries and learning about other cultures. I was able to understand different ways to approach the same challenges. Almost 25 years since the Sydney Olympic Games, where I was responsible for all of the sports and broke all business management rules. With 28 direct reports (each of the sports competition managers reported to me), it taught me very quickly about the value of decentralized management skills. I learned the need to empower great people to do the job that they are passionate about, to not get in their way but to support them from a management perspective, and to understand the very important value of trust but verify.

Today, people question the Olympic Games; their values, the way host cities are selected, some of the sports that are now Olympic sports, the value of the sponsorships, the politics related to the Olympics. While there are valid concerns in some of those areas it's not my focus. As the Paris 2024 Olympic games are about to begin I think back to the Olympic Truce, the idea that all countries around the world would cease all conflicts for the 16 days of the Olympics. Take a minute to think about that Truce and what it must have meant when the Olympics began and countless years after that; that Truce is still valued. We can only hope that those in conflict today around the world will recognize the Olympic Truce and celebrate humanity, athletes, and country-versus-country competition in the venues around Paris!

I was incredibly fortunate to be part of the inner workings of multiple Olympic Games to gain an understanding of what the International Olympic Committee (IOC) objectives are and to work alongside current IOC Executive Director Christophe Dubi, current IOC Director of Sports, Kit McConnell managing the many challenges that we faced in Sydney, Australia. Many of the great people that I worked with in Atlanta and Sydney are still involved in the Olympics! I have very fond memories of working for Dave Maggard, Jose Rodriguez and countless others that put in incredible hours to deliver a phenomenal Olympic Games in 1996. I learned so much from the likes of Jim Sloman, Bob Elphinston, John Quayle and so many others that were also involved in a spectacular Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Let's take these next couple of weeks, set aside our differences and cheer for the athletes representing our country's and hope the Olympic Truce is respected as these Paris Olympics get underway and we get to experience the phenomenal amount of work that the Paris 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee has put in to provide an unbelievable addition of the Summer Olympics!