Former Dartmouth soccer goalkeeper Scott Blackmun '79 persues his passion for athletics off the field following an announcement earlier this month that he will serve as the new Chief Executive Officer of the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors.
Blackmun began his work with the USOC in the fall of 1992. He is a lawyer by practice and had previously served as General Council and Senior Managing Director of the USOC, before serving as acting CEO from 2000-2001.
After his time with the USOC in the 1990s, Blackmun worked as Chief Executive Officer of Anschutz Entertainment Group, leaving in 2006 to become a partner with Holme Roberts & Owen LLP in Colorado.
At 52 years old, Blackmun is now returning to the USOC to use his years of expertise in sports and entertainment law to tackle the many challenges associated with the position.
As CEO of the committee, Blackmun's new mission is to achieve sustained excellence as an organization, he said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"I've always been interested in the Olympic movement," Blackmun said. "We want to inspire Americans to be the best that they can be."
Given his extensive experience dealing with sponsorship and legal issues, Blackmun said that he hopes to maintain the integrity of the Games while ensuring high competition for Americans participating in both the Olympics and Paralympics.
Despite naming fundraising for athletes as the USOC's biggest concern, Blackmun also pointed to other challenges he will face, such as dealing with doping and eligibility.
"Other controversial issues are ambush marketing, when companies use Olympic-themed advertisements," he said. "There is also doping and eligibility."
Ambush marketing harms the USOC's attempts to generate revenue from official sponsors such as AT&T and McDonald's, Blackmun said.
In the past, the USOC has fought with major companies, like Subway and Verizon, over the companies' Olympic-themed advertisements.
Recently, Subway ran a commercial featuring 14-time Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps in which he appears to be swimming to Vancouver, Canada the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In an interview with the Associated Press in January, the company defended its ads featuring Phelps, whom it has been using in marketing campaigns since 2008.
"Regarding our latest commercial featuring Michael Phelps, Subway does not share the USOC's perspective and the conclusions being drawn from it," Tony Pace, chief marketing officer of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund, said in the interview.
The USOC released a statement regarding the infringement allegations.
"Olympism is based upon a spirit of fair play, and ambush marketing clearly violates that spirit. The USOC extends our sincere gratitude to all our official Olympic sponsors and suppliers," Blackmun said in the statement with the AP.
Blackmun replaces interim CEO Stephanie Streeter.
Blackmun's appointment has been warmly received by critics especially in the face of past USOC leadership, which at times caused turmoil in the Olympic community.
Alan Abrahamson recently wrote on UniversalSports.com that Blackmun "may arguably be the last, best chance for the USOC."
Sandra Baldwin a former USOC president resigned in 2002 after it was uncovered that she lied about her academic credentials. Baldwin claimed to have an undergraduate degree from University of Colorado and a doctorate from Arizona State, when in fact both were untrue, and she had never completed her dissertation.
The previous CEO, Jim Scherr, resigned in March of 2009, coinciding with Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Scherr served for six years.
As a member of the Big Green, Blackmun played tennis for one year and soccer for four. His career numbers in soccer include 90 saves and an average of 1.02 goals allowed per game.
Blackmun graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth with a degree in philosophy and continued his education at Stanford Law School.
As an undergraduate, however, Blackman said he had no idea what he wanted to do as a career.
