Held in the 1984 Games host city of Los Angeles, the event - supported by US Olympic and Paralympic Foundation chairman Gordon Crawford and jointly staged by legacy organisation the LA84 Foundation - brought together scholars, students, athletes, administrators, business experts and members of the media to create a forum for Olympic education and the exchange of ideas.

The theme of the Academy was "Athlete Development" and Scott Blackmun, the USOC's chief executive, explained exactly what he meant by that phrase.

"Our mission is relatively narrow," he said in his opening speech.

"We are focused on sustained competitive excellence at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"We believe that our calling, our job within the global Olympic Movement, is to do the best that we can do to empower our American athletes to do the best that they can do."

Scott Blackmun pictured talking to International Olympic Academy director Dionyssis Gangas at the 2014 US Olympic Academy ©USOC


Other speakers included International Olympic Committee member and USOC board member Anita DeFrantz, USOC sport performance chief Alan Ashley, USOC organisational excellence chief and 1984 Olympic 100 metres hurdles champion Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, and LA84 Foundation board member and 1960 Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson.

Water polo Olympic champion Brenda Villa, London 2012 cycling silver medallist Dotsie Bausch and Paralympic sprinter Jarryd Wallace also spoke at the one-day event.

The original US Olympic Academy took place from 1977 to 1991 over three or four days on college campuses throughout the US.

Going forward, the USOC is now looking into whether the Academy could become a regular event once again.

"USOC leaders will now review participant feedback and discuss options for the viability of a US Olympic Academy," Lindsay Hogan, the USOC senior director of communications, explained.

"This was a successful first step in the assessment process."

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