US Sailing seeks financial damages from those found to have harmed athletes

US Sailing News © US Sailing

US Sailing, the sport's National Governing Body and the organization responsible for the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team, in its continued commitment to its athletes, has acted in response to the recently completed independent review by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and filed a lawsuit against America One and three of its principals and employees for actions that have harmed, and continue to harm, athletes, the US Sailing Team, and US Sailing.

US Sailing's priority is to support its athletes to the fullest extent possible. Many positive steps have been taken since US Sailing made changes to its Olympic team leadership and operations and the USOPC issued its independent report on its investigation and assessment of US Sailing's Olympic operations, including:

• US Sailing provided several million dollars in performance support to its athletes for successful training and competition.
• Athletes participating in the process that led to the hiring of an incredibly talented new High Performance Director with significant experiences in successful Olympic teams.
• US Sailing continues to work with the athletes and the USOPC to prioritize athlete safety measures, including as recommended in the USOPC report.
• US Sailing conducted its successful first round of Olympic Trials in Miami January 6-13, with 61 athletes participating, which continues the second week of February.

We remain committed to supporting athletes' physical and mental preparation as we select our team for the Paris 2024 Games.

In further response to the USOPC's report, and to recover for the athletes what was lost as indicated in the USOPC's report, US Sailing has filed a lawsuit against America One and three of its principals and employees for actions that have harmed athletes, the US Sailing Team, and US Sailing's business and reputation with donors, sponsors, competitive sailors, and the larger sailing community and Olympic movement. The lawsuit seeks financial damages to replace lost funding and remedy the harm done, and the cessation of wrongful conduct. Damages recovered will support the athletes as intended. US Sailing's Complaint (filed in the United States District Court in Rhode Island) is publicly available and can be found here.

Regrettably, the defendants in the lawsuit have harmed our athletes, Team, and organization, and US Sailing, as the National Governing Body, is compelled to respond and take all reasonable and appropriate steps to redress that harm, obtain the monetary remedies for the benefit of our athletes and their continued competitive endeavors, and enable the US Sailing Team to best move forward.

US Sailing reaffirms its ongoing commitment to support our athletes, move forward, and improve our Olympic operations and the performance of our athletes in Paris and beyond.

Response from the AmericaOne Foundation

As the largest private financial supporter of US Sailing Association (USSA) and the US Olympic Sailing effort for more than a decade, this has been a disheartening and disappointing week for us at the AmericaOne Foundation. Now, in the final run-up to this year's Olympics, we have been laser-focused on providing support for our American sailors. US Sailing should be doing the same. Unfortunately, instead of putting their efforts into what matters most - our Olympic athletes - US Sailing is pursuing a meritless lawsuit against AmericaOne. Despite the unprecedented levels (over $6M) of assistance AmericaOne has provided to USSA and our sailor athletes over the past 15 years, USSA is actively defaming our reputation.

The accusations being levied against Bill Ruh, Paul Cayard, Jose Spina and AmericaOne by the US Sailing Board of Directors are unfathomable. But what is even more egregious is that they would take this action immediately after the U.S. Olympic trials - a time when we should be celebrating our athletes who have trained so hard for the past four years and supporting them as they get ready for the biggest race of their lives. Now is when our sport's national governing body should be doubling down to help our sailors, but instead, USSA is trying to attribute blame for their shortfalls to AmericaOne. Instead of ramping up focus on fundraising and athlete support, they are working to divide our community by publicly attacking their largest supporter.

Here are some facts:

Prior to the arrival of Bill and Paul, US Sailing had no significant donors and a multi-million dollar hole in its Olympic budget. Upon starting his employment, Paul was asked to defer half his salary, which he accepted.

In 2021-2022, Bill and Paul - through their own personal contacts - secured $18 million in commitments for our U.S. Olympic effort. Every donor committed because they could see a clear plan to support sailor athletes, a plan focused on returning the U.S. to the Olympic podium, credible leadership, and responsible oversight of the funds.

The Olympic department of US Sailing has always been on its own to fundraise for itself, and because of this, it had to operate on a meager budget. Our results over the past cycles reflected that lack of investment in our sailors. At some point, US Sailing began charging the Olympic department an "administrative fee" - which the Olympic department had to cover itself from its own fundraising. In 2022, Paul and Bill became concerned about the amount of this fee and how it was continuously increasing. The final straw came when USSA decided to double the fee -- now almost 7 figures -- for 2023. Paul objected in writing to USSA CEO Alan Ostfield and the US Sailing Board, explaining how this fee would take significant donor-dedicated funds out of athlete hands without providing commensurate value. Unable to convince the Board, Paul, Bill and the entire coaching staff resigned in protest.

Because donors contribute based on trust and confidence, when this team resigned, it was no surprise that many donors withdrew their support and commitments from USSA. Some of these donors chose to move their donations to AmericaOne because they believed in the coaching staff and their programs. It is known that we operate at a much higher rate of efficiency than USSA, which means more money goes directly to athletes.

Today, AmericaOne is being targeted as a scapegoat for USSA's own shortfalls in supporting American sailors. USSA seems more concerned about themselves and determined to build a narrative that justifies their actions and failures, instead of putting the spotlight squarely on our athletes and working to rectify their own financial situation. It is unconscionable that a national governing body - especially at this time in the Olympic cycle - would focus on anything other than fully supporting their Olympic hopefuls.

Over the past six months alone, AmericaOne has contributed $1.5M in the form of direct financial support, 648 days of on-the-water coaching from world-class coaches, physical fitness and conditioning guidance, funding for a weather study for the Marseille Olympic venue, performance planning for 22 athletes, physical therapists for athletes at various events, and the direct support at 45 events, camps, clinics, regattas and World Championships. In addition, we provided an $81,000 Special Trials Grant to 30 athletes to help them with costs incurred for competing in the Olympic Trials.

Despite USSA's baseless claims, one thing is certain: AmericaOne Racing and its partners will never stop supporting American sailor athletes. That has been our mission since we were founded, and we remain committed to helping American athletes turn their incredible potential into podiums.

Sincerely,

Lawrence G. Finch,
Chair, AmericaOne Foundation