US task force calls for widespread reforms

RALEIGH, North Carolina: Wide-ranging reforms including closer control over elite track and field athletes' competitive schedules were recommended by a special task force on Monday.

The 69-page report was commissioned after the performance of the US athletics team at last year's Beijing Olympics. The team finished with seven gold medals, half the total won at each of the last two world championships and one fewer than at the 2004 Athens Games.

The report said athletes should be discouraged from making energy-sapping trips to and from Europe after the U.S. trials and from over-competing on the European circuit for the sole purpose of making money.