Mavericks With Medals

Associated Press

Shaun White

When Johnny Spillane won the first-ever U.S. medal in the Nordic Combined on the third day of the Winter Olympics, his victory was touted as the payoff for old-school Olympic team building: a patient grass-roots effort to establish an American presence in an obscure winter sport. But since that early surprise, most of the biggest names of the Winter Games have been members of Team USA in name only, mavericks notable for training on their own, often in unconventional ways.

In 2007, for example, Bode Miller, who won his first Olympic gold in the men's combined earlier this week, took the unprecedented step of quitting the U.S. Ski Team to form his own Team America, which consisted of a mobile home and his personal entourage, before returning to the U.S. Ski Team this season. Lindsey Vonn, who won the women's downhill, has also worked outside the U.S. Ski Team infrastructure, being coached by her husband, Thomas Vonn, a former U.S. Ski Team racer. The Games' biggest star, Shaun White, the two-time defending gold medalist in the halfpipe, developed and perfected his signature tricks—the Double Cork and Double McTwist 1260—at a secret halfpipe built by sponsor Red Bull in Silverton, Colo.

Speed skater Shani Davis, who won gold in the 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500 meters, operates even further outside the mainstream. An African-American from the South Side of Chicago, Mr. Davis opted out of the U.S. Speed skating's "athlete's agreement" that would have provided him a modest stipend; he chose, instead, to look for his own sponsors. He's conspicuously absent from the team's promotional materials, and team officials are notably mum on the subject of their biggest star. Short-track star Apolo Ohno hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the powers that be in his sport. And, of course, figure skating is the ultimate individual endeavor, with skaters like 15-year-old Allison Reed of the Republic of Georgia, by way of Warren, N.J., going so far as to change citizenship in order to compete.

Contrast this rather rough-and-ready approach to athlete development with Canada's methodical, government-sponsored Olympic performance program. At a cost of 112 million Canadian dollars ($105.6 million), "Own the Podium" has produced only 17 medals as of early Friday, well behind the pace of Torino four years ago, when the Canadians captured 24. The U.S. sat atop the medal standings with 32.

This may seem, at first, like a convincing argument for fully privatizing the development of Olympic athletes. The reality is more complex than that. America's Olympians are funded at relatively low levels compared with their international rivals—the U.S. Olympic Committee doled out $58.2 million over four years to national governing bodies of individual sports, roughly half of what Canada's spending. For every Shaun White, there's a Shannon Bahrke, the pink-haired, bronze-medal mogul skier, who started her own coffee line to support her training and that of her teammates. Or the American speedskaters, who turned to comedian Stephen Colbert to raise $300,000 for the team after its major sponsor, DSB Bank, went bankrupt. The bottom line is simple: We won't put a dent in the national deficit with the money we're now spending on our Olympic athletes.

Relying solely on companies like Red Bull won't do it either. Sponsors are looking for an immediate return on their investment and to throw money at sure things. Messrs. Davis, Ohno and White secured big endorsement deals because, as defending gold medalists, they were sure to attract media attention, win or lose.

As Canada has learned the hard way, producing Olympic medalists is a long-term proposition. A lack of funding might distract a mature athlete from giving his best performance, but throwing money at a modestly talented competitor won't put him on the podium.

The first part of the road to future Olympic gold is under way right now. This week, every 10-year-old in the U.S. wants to be Shaun White or Lindsey Vonn or even Bill Demong, who won a gold in large-hill Nordic Combined. The first job of the U.S. Olympic Committee and the governing bodies of the individual sports is to provide the resources so as many of these kids as possible can to try out these sports in the hopes that one in a million will turn out to be the next Bode Miller.

Then comes the hard part, that long slog between gifted youngster and grizzled medal contender. The USOC must recognize that its goal isn't to churn out merely competent athletes by the dozens, but to identify and nurture a few full-blown geniuses. And geniuses often march to the beat of their own drums. Early in his career, for example, Mr. Miller was the first to use shaped skis, while his coaches dismissed them as a gimmick for recreational skiers. And Ms. Vonn, at the urging of her husband, defied conventional wisdom and became the first woman to race—and win—on stiffer, longer men's skis.

For all their talent and charisma, the heroes of Vancouver are also rugged individualists who reinvented their sports, sometimes clashing with coaches who didn't see things their way. It's not hard to envision an alternate reality in which many of them got fed up with bucking the system and ended up in front of the television, watching less talented but more compliant former teammates finish a respectable 12th.

An American version of "Own the Podium" might look like a cross between a school voucher program and venture-capital funding. The USOC and the individual sports federations should offer seed money to the most promising young athletes, and then have the foresight to step back and allow them maximum freedom to think—and train—outside the box. If there's a lesson to be learned from this magical Olympiad, it's that the only thing more important than discovering prodigious talent may be having the good sense to stay out of its way.

—Mr. St. John wrote the By the Numbers column for The Wall Street Journal and is a frequent contributor to SKI magazine.

apolo ohno, shani davis, grass roots effort, thomas vonn, old allison, johnny spillane, gold medalist, american presence, winter olympics, mctwist, speed skater, unconventional ways, husband thomas, ski team, bode miller, republic of georgia, halfpipe, unprecedented step, speed skating, track star

Online.wsj.com