The new leader of USA Track and Field analyzed the team's underwhelming performance at the Beijing Olympics — including dropped batons and a record-low men's gold medal count — and judged the federation's overall performance to be "seriously deficient."

After watching both U.S. relay teams drop the baton in the 400-meter preliminaries and seeing the U.S. men win only four gold medals, CEO Doug Logan has decided to form a panel of former athletes and coaches to analyze USATF's high-performance programs.

"This will probably be an uncomfortable exercise," Logan wrote Thursday in his blog on the USATF Web site. "But, this is not a `knee jerk' reaction, or a `witch hunt,' or an attempt to castigate anyone. Indeed, this panel may determine that the factors leading to less-than-optimal performance were beyond anyone's control."

The Americans took home 23 medals from Beijing — most of any country — but the results were still disappointing on many levels.

Bernard Lagat (1,500 and 5,000), Reese Hoffa (shot put), Tyson Gay (100 and 200), Brad Walker (pole vault) and Jeremy Wariner (400) were the 2007 world champions who failed to defend their titles at the Olympics.

Lagat and Gay, who were fighting injuries, joined Walker and Hoffa in failing to win medals. Sanya Richards (400), Allyson Felix (200) and Lolo Jones (100 hurdles) were other favorites who did not win. Wariner was beaten by another American, LaShawn Merritt, in the 400.

Logan did his own analysis of the results and the numbers were no better.

Not counting relays, he said there were 66 individual performances in men's competition and 65 in women's. Only seven of the men (10.6 percent) and 11 of the women (16.9 percent) performed at their peak level for 2008 in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the relays that have long been considered America's signature event resulted in stunning disappointments, at least in the 400-meter races. Gay and Lauryn Williams were both involved in bad exchanges that knocked the U.S. team out in the preliminary round. Gay did not participate at the U.S. training camp in Dalian, China, where two intensive relay practices were held.

"The expectation is that we should dominate" in relays, Logan said. "They are also the activity that we, as an organization, should have the greatest control over. We select the athletes and train and coach them."

Logan noted that since 2003, in world championship and Olympic competition, there have been eight 400-meter relay medal opportunities. In four of the eight, the U.S. teams failed to make the finals. From 1999 through 2003, Americans won medals in seven of eight 400 relays.

"We need to determine what has changed in the last four years," Logan said.

The Americans did salvage things by winning both 1,600-meter relays, but their seven overall gold medals were one fewer than the previous two Olympics and only one more than their worst showings in 1972 and 1976, when there were fewer events.

Logan, who took over as CEO shortly before the Olympics, has had little time to make an impact on the organization. He was handed a large, unwieldy federation that, at the behest of the U.S. Olympic Committee, has been forced to streamline its board of directors to become more accountable and not filled with members who are beholden to specific factions within the sport.

Those changes are under way. More could be coming, depending on what the panel finds.

"America's track and field athletes have built a tradition of success, and Doug Logan is interested in seeing that tradition not only continue, but grow in the future," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "The type of analysis USA Track and Field is undertaking should be very helpful in charting a course for the future."

In the blog, Logan lauded the USATF staff and said the "resource infrastructure is as good as I have ever encountered." He applauded the athletes' behavior at the games and called them a credit to their families, their country and USATF.

But he left no doubt that something was wrong with the results.

He said the panel would begin its work in the next 30 days and come up with results by the end of the year.

"I have come to the conclusion that our performance, as an organization, is seriously deficient if judged by the mandate of our own charter," he said. "Additionally, our High Performance Programs to which we contribute the greatest portion of our fiscal resources must be reassessed and examined in the light of this empirical data."