Majestic passion: Rick Mack, HR director for the U.S. Olympic Committee, is on a mission to preserve Olympic ideals

HR Magazine, Dec, 2004 by Ann Pomeroy

With the Rocky Mountains forming a dramatic backdrop--the "purple mountain majesty" that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the lyrics to "America the Beautiful"--it's not surprising that human resource professionals at the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) headquarters frequently use the word "passion" when describing their feelings about their work.

Rick Mack, managing director of human resources, and his colleagues support world-class Olympic athletes on the 38-acre campus of the Colorado Springs U.S. Olympic Training Center, one of three such centers for American athletes. Other training centers are located in Lake Placid, N.Y., and Chula Vista, Calif. The three centers have a combined total of more than 1,000 beds for athletes. More than 500 athletes and coaches live in two residence halls at the Colorado facility.

Mack and his HR team are enthusiastic about their responsibility to the champion athletes and to the Olympic movement, which is about more than just sport. "It's about ideals, sportsmanship, values, fair play and peaceful competition," he says. Olympic athletes in training "give up so much," deferring careers, education and families. "For the vast majority of Olympic athletes, there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" as there may be for professional athletes. "For most, this is about achieving childhood dreams and competing to be the best they can be."

Darryl Seibel, the USOC's chief spokesperson, agrees that the movement "transcends sports. This organization and this movement are built in part on emotion and the impact the Olympic movement has on people's lives," he says.

For those who work at the Colorado center, Mack says, "All they have to do is walk up the Olympic Path [a walkway to the training center lined with sculptures representing the 28 Olympic sports] or walk into the Athletes' Dining Hall to see what we are working for."

Seibel agrees. "If that doesn't ignite your passion, nothing will."

Working with the Best

As heady as their environment is, Mack and his staff don't have a lot of time to stare in awe at the statues and world-class athletes.

"We are 'trouble central,'" Mack says of the HR department. His staff of nine handles a variety of responsibilities for the USOC's 470 employees at the three U.S. training centers as well as for the U.S. athletes. For example, HR administers athlete benefits programs that provide health insurance coverage for more than 900 elite athletes--Olympic or Pan American Games hopefuls with a reasonable expectation to compete internationally--and their dependents. Common criteria for elite athletes include "top eight in the world" or "top eight in the United States."

Each sport is allotted a certain number of slots based on Olympic team size, and athletes are nominated by the national governing board (NGB) for their individual sport. The USOC generally accepts those nominations, Mack says.

In addition to working for the athletes, the USOC board and the staff, Mack serves as a consultant to the 45 NGBs representing each of the Olympic sports (some sports have more than one board). Many of these boards are small and have no HR departments. "I give HR advice, not legal advice," Mack says, "although sometimes it's a fine line." In what he calls "counseling 101 sessions," Mack begins by listening. Often he will say, "Here's how we did it," but he is always careful to stress that he is not an attorney.

"We are advocates for management," he says, "and also for 'the right thing.'" Together, he and Mary Watkins, director of HR administration, form an investigative team to look at problems, Mack says. They document any employee performance issues, and they have had few adverse actions.

Mack and Watkins are "interchangeable," he says. "We complement each other." He values her abilities and her experience highly, calling her his right hand. "On the professional side of my life, the one thing that would break my heart would be if she walked away," Mack says.

The lure of working for and with Olympic and Paralympic competitors makes recruiting relatively easy for the USOC. They get lots of resumes before each Olympic Games, and "sometimes people walk into the HR office in shorts from one of the public tours and ask about jobs," Watkins says.

The USOC recruits for "an amazing array of positions, everything from dishwashers and food service workers to chefs, athletic trainers, Ph.D. scientists and CEOs," she says. "We're a microcosm of many industries rolled into one." As a result, HR has to relate to many different people, and that is one of Mack's strengths, Watkins says. "Rick brings a human connection to HR. He can talk to anybody about anything, and he really lives the ideals."

Mack's staff also administers a college internship program that has been ranked by the Princeton Review as one of America's Top 100 Internships for the past seven years. Each semester or summer, the USOC offers 25 to 30 competitive internships in areas such as sports science, journalism, sports administration, marketing and broadcasting. More than 60 former interns have been hired for full-time jobs with the USOC and the NGBs. Additionally, HR manages a volunteer program for community members who work with the NGBs.