Frazier up for Olympics post in 2004

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier has been recommended to be lead the United States delegation at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the U. S. Olympic Committee announced.

If confirmed by officers and executive committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Frazier would be named the Chef de Mission, in charge of the entire 800-plus member U.S. team, including athletes, officers and support personnel, he said.

While the position would mean extensive travel and time commitments, Frazier said it would mostly come in the summer of 2004 and still allow him to handle his UH duties.

Frazier, 48, is in the first year of a three-year contract at UH.

Action on the recommendation could come as soon as Feb. 8-9 in meetings planned for Chicago, according to a USOC spokesperson.

If confirmed, it is believed it would mark the first time the U.S. has named one of its former gold medalists "to lead the team in the Olympics Games," USOC President Marty Mankamyer said in a statement.

"The chef is in charge of every aspect of the team," Frazier said. "He is the spokesman for the team and handles communication, discipline issues, etc."

It is a position Frazier says his Olympic career has been preparing him for. A member of the gold medal 4x400 relay team in the Montreal Olympics, Frazier has risen in the USOC hierarchy to the rank of vice president.

He was an assistant chef for the U.S. in the 1991 Pan American Games, an assistant chef at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the chef in the 1999 Pan Am Games and a special assistant to the president in the 2000 Sydney Games.

"It has all been leading up to 2004," Frazier said.