National teams get the cold shoulder

"Samaranch didn't want the best amateur athletes; he wanted the best athletes," says John Ruger, ombudsman for the United States Olympic Committee.

Now, many top athletes don't need financial support from their national governing bodies. "The approach of the NGBs just doesn't fit anymore," says Peter Carlisle, a sports agent who represents the Collection and other Olympic athletes.

When athletes are new to the game, they often need the team's support, says snowboarder Ross Powers. Fame changes that. Powers left the U.S. team seven years ago, when he was 19, because Burton Snowboards wanted him to use its products exclusively. But he missed the camaraderie and challenge of working closely with other athletes. The Collection gave him the benefits of a team, without the restrictions.

The same is true for Parra and Hedrick, who train on a team not connected to U.S. Speedskating. Parra and Hedrick stress that they broke from U.S. Speedskating because it was best for their performance, not just their pocketbooks. They were already working with their own coach and paying for it themselves. Jennifer Rodriquez, by contrast, stayed with the NGB because she liked the coach, though she could have made more money on her own.

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The endorsement dispute began brewing after the 2002 Olympics, when speed skating started attracting lucrative corporate sponsorships. Under the contract they signed with the team, skaters were allowed to find their own sponsors for two spots on the uniform, the leg and shoulder. The team would find sponsors for another four spots.

But U.S. Speedskating reserved the right to find a sponsor for the leg area. In May 2004, the athletes learned that Qwest Communications would be taking the spot.

The Qwest deal left top skaters in a bind: break their contracts with other sponsors, or break with the U.S. speed-skating team. Parra, Hedrick, Davis and Witty chose the latter, each losing more than $25,000 in benefits.

"It's become a major problem because the top guys weren't wearing Qwest," says Thomas O'Hare, a law student and former speed skater who consults for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Katie Marquard, executive director of U.S. Speedskating, says Qwest continues to support the team despite the four skaters' absence.

Hedrick thinks U.S. Speedskating should have tried harder to keep its top Olympians. Marquard says the team tried to compromise, asking the four athletes to convince their sponsors to use a different spot on the uniform. "We thought we reached a mutually beneficial point," she says.

The athletes didn't agree. Hedrick and Davis are covered in DSB logos. Parra kept the leg spot for Dutch company Timeout Sport. He's also sponsored by Visa, Home Depot, Nike, Kellogg, Big Bear Mountain Water and Zions Bank.

"Every athlete I know of has a problem with the national governing body as far as spots they can use and how much money they can make," Parra says. "It seems like we're backpedaling if we can't have our athletes make some money."

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