The Beijing Olympics end today.Regardless of the medal count the U.S. team finishes with, in a large part, the success of the U.S. team was set in motion several years ago when Jim Scherr became the interim chief executive officer and eventual CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.The USOC was wrought with internal strife and ethical violations during the immediate years before Scherr took over the organization.”He’s one of the best things that have happened to the U. S. Olympic Committee,” golf legend Judy Bell said. “He’s concerned and cares about the athletes. He wants to do things right.”Scherr took over on an interim basis in 2003 after the resignations of president Marty Mankamyer and CEO Lloyd Ward. The Athens Olympics were coming the following summer. Many considered those Olympics a success for the U.S. team.Scherr had guaranteed that the American team would claim 100 medals. The team made him look good by garnering 103, even though the 35 gold medals were the lowest since the 1976 Montreal Olympics.Seven months after Athens, the “interim” was taken off Scherr’s title.Then in 2006, before the Turin Olympics, Scherr said the American team would walk away with a record 34 medals. If the Alpine skiing team hadn’t had such a dismal showing, Scherr would’ve been closer on his prediction.Still, the 25 medals won in 2006 were the most for an American team on foreign soil.Before these Olympic Games started, Scherr all but guaranteed that the American team wouldn’t beat the host country in total medal count.And that’s one way to measure success.However, in today’s steroids-infested climate, another way of measuring success is finding out how clean the American team has been. The answer to that might not come for several years. Even weeks before the Games began, we were finding out about athletes cheating by using performance-enhancing drugs. The U.S. track and field team had six medals, including four golds, from the Athens and Sydney Olympics stripped in an eight-month span.Eight years from now is when we’ll be able to judge Scherr on what he’s doing now to make the Olympic movement as clean as possible.There are folks, including No. 2 on this list of the area’s most influential sports figures, who believe Scherr is doing a great job.”Jim Scherr is someone, who for three decades has been at the forefront of sport as an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, as the executive director of USA Wrestling and now – and really I think the pinnacle of his career – as the president and chief executive officer of the United States Olympic Committee,” El Pomar chief Bill Hybl said. “Jim has shown that unique ability to be a manager and run a business, but care a great deal about the athletes, which is what the United States Olympic Committee is all about.”

Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE