The U.S. Olympic Committee called USA Curling’s recent Olympic finishes “unacceptable” in a March letter and said it could cut funding and/or ties with the national governing body unless changes are made, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The USOC wants USA Curling to put more emphasis on winning Olympic and World Championships medals, give a chief executive full authority over the high-performance program (which will be voted on at a USA Curling meeting Saturday) and adopt methods that made other countries successful, according to the report.
Proposed changes clash with U.S. curling’s “traditional ways,” according to the newspaper.
The U.S. men and women combined to go 3-15 at the Sochi Olympics, finishing in ninth and 10th place out of 10 teams, respectively. The men needed to win five straight games at the final Olympic Qualification Event in December to make it to Sochi.
The U.S. men and women both finished in last place at the 2010 Olympics. The U.S.’ only Olympic curling medal was a men’s bronze at the 2006 Olympics.
The U.S. women finished sixth of 12 teams at the post-Olympics World Championships in March. The U.S. men finished 10th out of 12 teams.
