The United States Olympic Committee is sending about 550 athletes to Greece this summer, and more than 80 percent of them are current or former NCAA student-athletes.

"Traditionally, history has shown that a great majority of Olympic athletes and coaches come from the collegiate ranks," said Big South Conference Commissioner Kyle Kallander, chair of the NCAA's Olympic Sports Liaison Committee and a member of the newly formed NCAA/USOC Task Force. "The role that the NCAA and NCAA institutions have played in the development of the United States Olympic teams has been overwhelming."

Yet despite this important relationship between collegiate sports and the Olympics, many schools across the country have been cutting Olympic sports and decreasing the opportunities of student-athletes to compete at both levels.

To stem the decline of Olympic sports, the NCAA and USOC have created a joint task force that will explore the situation and offer recommendations to curb the Olympic-sport-sponsorship decline.

"I'm certain there are solutions out there," said Jack Swarbrick, an Indianapolis-based attorney who chairs the new task force. "I think on the basis of the work I've already done, speaking to members of the committee, there are some great ideas. I think we have such a high-powered group that I'm confident we'll be able to sift through the many ideas we'll have and really focus on those that we'll be able to implement."

The task force conducts its first meeting July 21 in Chicago.

Success feeds success

Swarbrick has worked in various capacities with both organizations throughout the years. He was the competition director for the Pan American Games in 1987, he coordinated Indianapolis' bid to bring the NCAA headquarters to the city and he has worked with various NCAA championships held in Indianapolis. Additionally, he has represented a number of sports' national governing bodies.

"Regardless of whether you ever produce an Olympian, we know from experience that sports such as wrestling, gymnastics, and track and field have provided a great educational experience for student-athletes," he said. "If those programs are great for student-athletes, and history tells us they are, how do we make sure they stay around?

"A byproduct of that, and an important byproduct for the country, is an opportunity to develop Olympians. But that's not the starting point for the analysis."

Jim Scherr, chief executive of the USOC, said he, too, hopes the new task force will fulfill its goal.

"I would hope, ultimately, that the strength of the pipeline, the participation of prospective Olympic or current Olympic athletes at NCAA institutions, would both be enhanced and continue to grow as a result of the work of this task force," said Scherr, a former Olympic and NCAA wrestler. "We know that the primary mission of the NCAA and its member institutions is to educate student-athletes and prepare them for their careers and their positions in society.

"We think an important part of that preparation, an important part of the fabric in the life of athletes and the student bodies on those individual campuses, is the pursuit by a few students of Olympic success. We would like to continue to maintain that."

Courtney Johnson, a 2000 water polo Olympian and former student-athlete at the University of California, Berkeley, also is a member of the new task force, serving as a representative of the USOC's Athletes Advisory Council.

"I think (college sports and the Olympics) in some cases are connected," she said. "I think they can be more connected to better help college sports, as well as athletes becoming Olympians. That's why I wanted to be on the task force."

Johnson said in her personal experience in water polo, many coaches in her sport also were connected with the Olympics, which helped in terms of training, competition schedules and other issues.

"It really helps collegiate sports to have Olympians compete at the collegiate level, because it brings the level of collegiate sports up so high," she said. "That in turn helps the Olympians because then there are more opportunities to compete at a high level."

Positive forecast

Scherr noted that one of the biggest boosts for Olympic sports could come from the Athens Games themselves. If the U.S. team does well in sports that do not normally receive much public recognition, that may increase interest in a specific sport.

"Certainly if a sport does well, and I think we've seen this happen in figure skating, or when Frank Shorter won the marathon in 1972, or even in wrestling with Rulon Gardner's victory in the 2000 Olympics, that captured the public's attention," said Scherr. "There is certainly a strong connection between Olympic visibility, Olympic success and the health and growth of a sport in the United States. The overall health and growth of the sport in the United States certainly plays into the number of participants at the grass-roots level, the number of participants at the high-school level and the number of potential participants at the collegiate level."

Scherr noted that the relationship between the NCAA and the USOC dates back many years. In fact, he said, there was a program in place, which concluded in 2000, that administered grants to conferences and institutions to help maintain participation in the men's Olympic pipeline and continue to grow participation in the women's Olympic pipeline for new and emerging sports.

Scherr, who called that program a success, said a similar program could be on the table for the new task force to consider.

The task force plans to produce specific and substantive recommendations as part of a final report to be issued by September 2005. In developing recommendations, those proposals that enjoy broad support among the members of the task force will be given priority, according to the operating principles of the task force.

"Obviously there are no easy solutions out there, but we are encouraged by the fact that there is some serious conversation going on about the problem," said Kallander. "I don't think there's any question that the role that NCAA institutions play in the development of Olympic athletes has been tremendous."