Meet the New Boss; Not the Same as the Old Boss?
Meet the New Boss; Not the Same as the Old Boss?
With seven years as a member of US Sailing's Olympic Sailing Committee, and double that as an industry insider, many see former Olympic hopeful Josh Adams as ideally qualified to take over leadership of the U.S. Olympic Sailing program. Others feel his appointment will perpetuate the philosophies that left the U.S. Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider without a medal in the 2012 Olympics.
On the surface, it may look like Josh Adams is walking into a hornet’s nest. The incoming managing director of U.S. Olympic Sailing inherits a team that, for the first time since 1936, returned home from an Olympic regatta without a single medal. The performance has made the team—and Adams’ hiring—the subject of significant scrutiny on the homefront. But a deeper look reveals the situation to be much less perilous for Adams, a former All-American sailor at Tufts University who comes to the team after a career at Sail magazine, including the last seven as publisher. Title sponsor Sperry Top-Sider, which signed on last spring, is committed through the next four years. Top athletes such as Paige Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe are already looking toward the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and the likely lineup for that regatta features four new classes, including kiteboard racing, a sport where the United States has proven to be quite competitive on the world circuit, albeit in a sport very much in its infancy. And with no medals in 2012, there’s nowhere for the team to go but up.
In the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, you were second in the Men’s 470 class with Bob Merrick. Without getting too deep, because we have a lot to cover, what are the lasting impressions that experience left with you?
We chose the 470 while we were still in college [Adams graduated from Tufts in 1994], because it was the easiest boat for us to transition to from the boats that we were sailing. We had sailed a lot of International 420s and then collegiate boats. We were a largely independent, young team, and fairly typical for Olympic sailors of that period. We were basically on our own; we got some great coaching from the Olympic program, but as far as funding and establishing the direction of our team—how we were going to train and improve our speed and technique—we were all on our own.
Four years later, Bob sailed with Paul Foerster in the 2000 Olympics and won silver. What was it like watching that experience unfold?
Bob and I grew up together, as sailors, friends. And so, on a personal level, I was ecstatic for Bob. And we’ve always joked that after the Savannah quad, Bob just needed a better helmsman. And he got one of the best. Paul’s one of the great American sailors in both one-design and high performance dinghies. And he just brought this level of experience and level of focus on technical development, so it was great to follow, and I was very happy for Bob.
Did you ever look at that—and I don’t want to say you were jealous of his success—but did you ever think, “Boy, I wish I’d kept going.” You chose a different path; you focused on your career, but did his success awaken any pangs of regret?
No. Going back to Savannah, we finished second in the Olympic Trials, and then our training partners, Kris Stookey and Louise Van Voorhis won the women’s Trials, so we stayed down there and trained with them all the way up to the Games. And then Bob and I decided: “Let’s give it a couple months to decompress and get away from it for a while, and then let’s make our decision.” And when we came together in the fall, I knew right away that I was done with the 470. A big reason for that was actually physical. I was a little big for the boat, and it wasn’t something that I wanted to continue—staying at fighting weight. So, with that being a big part of the decision process, there was no regret.
Okay. Let’s look forward here. You are taking over for Dean Brenner, but that doesn’t tell the whole truth, because this is a bit of a new job, a new position. Give us the job description for your position, which, if I have it correct, is the managing director of the U.S. Olympic Team, or the U.S. Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider.
I’m the managing director of U.S. Olympic Sailing. That’s my official title. And we—on the Olympic Sailing Committee, which I’ve been a member of since 2005—knew years ago that we were at a point where the leadership of U.S. Olympic Sailing needed to be professionalized. The demands of the job, the scope and size of the program, are big enough that it really has to be a full-time job. We needed to move away from the volunteer aspect of the leadership that we had had to some extent. So that fundamental decision was made at the board level of US Sailing, and with the full endorsement and support of the Olympic Sailing Committee, to shift responsibilities of program management from the Olympic Sailing Committee Chair, to the full-time position. [ed.’s note: Adams clarified by email that his position will no longer be the chair of US Sailing’s Olympic Sailing Committee. “I wanted to point out that we will also be appointing a new OSC Chair. The OSC will function as an advisory board to the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program. The chair, functioning in a different role than what Dean has, will be the senior adviser of that group. Chair appointment TBA.”]
Dean mentioned in Weymouth that he had a two-term limit on his job; is that changed with this new role that you’re filling?
This is a job for life, isn’t it? [Laughs]. Ah, no, in all seriousness, both US Sailing and I are committed to Rio, but this job can go multiple quads, and I would like to see it go multiple quads. It’s a full-time job; there’s no term-limit on it.
What are the differences maybe in the job now to the job Dean has been doing for the last eight years? He went from a volunteer, part-time position in 2004 to 2008 quad to a paid part-time position for the last four years. How will your job, which is now full-time, differ from his?
Well, it won’t differ in that I take on the full scope of his responsibilities. So, everything that Dean was responsible for, I will be responsible for going forward. And so I will be responsible for the budget, for running the commercial program, and all of the revenue aspects of Olympic Sailing. Managing the Olympic staff, and so on.
So what is it that makes you think you’re the right person for this job? How would you sell yourself to the cynical person who’s looking at you and wondering why you got the job as opposed to somebody else?
Okay, fair question. Well, I have a deep passion for and experience in Olympic sailing, and Olympic class boats. And we talked about Savannah and my experience in the ’96 quad, which I should also note was an incredible experience because the world came to North America, which made it easier for a young team to compete, because the Games were in North America. But my Olympic experience actually goes back to 1988 as a young kid growing up in Newport, R.I. The Olympic Trials, back when it was a one-regatta event, came to Newport, and that’s when I bought my first 470, got the bug, and have been hooked on Olympic sailing ever since. So after ’96, I stayed close to the program, through friends who were both sailors and coaches, and then got involved in the management of Olympic sailing through my experience on the Olympic Sailing Committee. And I think that background over a couple decades in Olympic Sailing really has me well prepared for the whole experience. I’ve been a part of the program as a sailor, and I’ve been a part of the program from the management perspective. Also, my background in media, has given me 15 years of building partnerships, many of which will translate well in this job. When you’re the publisher of a media brand, you’re busy selling a lot of advertising and building a lot of marketing partnerships. Well, some of those same companies that I have worked with also support the Olympic program. It’s tough to put a number on it, but if you break down where I’ll spend my time, as the leader of U.S. Olympic Sailing, I’ll probably spend 70 percent of my time focused on revenue, and focused on all of our partnerships. And my experience in media, and sailing media, has me well prepared for that.
This appointment was made before the Olympic Games. So I don’t think it’s fair to criticize your selection in light of the team’s disappointing performance in Weymouth, to say: “You are a part of this system that produced the most disappointing performance in U.S. Olympic Sailing in 60 years, and now you’re leading the charge.” But there is a strong feeling out there that with your hire, US Sailing is perpetuating the establishment that didn’t get us medals in 2012. What is your reaction to that?
Well my reaction to that is that people will draw their own conclusions. Over time, people will see what kind of leader I am, and what kind of program I’m running, and what kind of strategy we put together. But to look at it in that simple light—that there’s no actual change in this change—it’s just a little premature to do that. I’m pretty confident in my ability to lead, and to lead a new strategy for this program, and to make changes where change is necessary. I think that over time, people will have a larger body of work from me to judge. At that point, let them judge away.
We’ll get into that strategy in a second. Let’s look at the Olympics this year. You were in England for part of the regatta. What was your gut reaction to the U.S. performance at Weymouth?
Disappointment, like anyone involved in the Olympic program. I was disappointed in the results and for our sailors, who trained very hard.
Gary Jobson’s commissioned a panel to look at the 2012 Olympics. You are involved, some names from Olympics past like Andy Kostanecki, Ed Adams, and Jonathan McKee, and some more current Olympians such as Tim Wadlow and Andrew Campbell. That panel’s conclusions are still a bit down the road. Do you have any kind of first-take impressions on what led to this performance by the U.S. Sailing Team?
We need to let the review process play out completely before we really draw any conclusions. I think the best way to go about this is to talk to all audiences who were close to it, especially the sailors; get their feedback before we really draw conclusions. As you noted, we’re pretty deep into the review process of the Olympic program, and we have a great group of talented and experienced people who have been involved in Olympic sailing, at many different levels: sailing, coaching, and also on the management side. This is going to be a comprehensive look at the Olympic program. It’s not just a focus on Weymouth. It’s a look at the entire quad, and even before this quad, and it’s a look at every aspect of the program. And we’ll make sure that all the key players in U.S. Olympic Sailing have a say. Once we get that, that body of information compiled, then we’ll be able to draw some conclusions about the program itself; it’ll give us a better understanding of what led to our performance in Weymouth, and then we’ll influence strategy going forward.
Are you the right person to lead this panel, given that you’ve been on the Olympic Committee for seven years now, and you’re now the incoming director? It seems that if you wanted to get a really independent opinion, you would step away from people who were so involved with the infrastructure of the program itself.
I strongly believe that I’m the right person to lead it. When we’re done with this review, there’s going to be a bunch of conclusions, and a set of recommendations that we’ll present back to the board and to the Olympic Sailing Committee. I want to use that body of information to influence our strategic direction. I want it to be as complete as possible, because this is a useful piece of information that we’ll be able to go back to throughout the entire quad. If you look at the alternatives to what you’re saying, which is having a completely independent panel without my involvement at all, then I might be handed a document with recommendations with less familiarity with how the review process went. And I may not be as excited to follow those recommendations. Keep in mind that there’s nine individuals on this panel. All have some connection over time to Olympic Sailing, but they are truly independent of the current program. Of the nine, only two have been on the Olympic Sailing Committee within the last 12 years.
