In an unflinching breakdown of what went wrong with the American track team at the Olympics, a task force lashed out at the relay system, recommended streamlining Olympic trials and called for a more stringent policy for dopers who want to be reinstated to the sport.

The 69-page report released Monday, heavy on uncomfortable details and scathing conclusions, was commissioned by USA Track and Field's new CEO, Doug Logan, who was disappointed in the team's performance in Beijing.

Americans led all countries with 23 medals but failed to live up to expectations in many areas. Their seven gold medals were the lowest haul since the 1997 world championships. The task force is called "Project 30," a nod to the goal of winning 30 medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

The nine-person panel, which included sprint great Carl Lewis and 2004 marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor, decried an overall "lack of accountability, professionalism and cohesion" among staff, coaches and athletes. The group suggested athletes focus more on winning Olympic medals, less on things such as appearance fees and access to TVs in the Olympic village.

To spearhead all the changes, the task force called for the hiring of a general manager to oversee all aspects of USATF, which long has been criticized as being too political and balkanized.

Though not specifically asked to cover the doping issue, the task force did anyway, saying "this is the single most important issue to the long-term success of track and field, domestically and internationally."

It called for current anti-doping standards to be augmented by the USATF, saying cheaters should be reinstated only if they provide depositions under oath "detailing what went into their decision to cheat, how they obtained and used their drugs, and who contributed to their cheating." It also called for dopers who want to return to enter a "rehab" program so they can learn how to compete cleanly after their suspensions.

The task force conceded the system they recommend likely would be challenged in the courts, but believes the USATF "has a moral obligation to make the effort."

"Any legal costs will be more than repaid by the culture shift it will help establish," the report read.

The task force also suggested athletes take more control over their careers, a consistent theme throughout the report.

The group concluded athletes don't focus enough on winning, or achieving their personal bests, at the Olympics.

The 10-day Olympic trials, which includes two rest days, might be part of the problem.

The panel did not recommend any change in the awarding of spots to the top three finishers in each event, provided they have an Olympic qualifying standard. That leaves the U.S. team vulnerable to injuries of top athletes, such as when Tyson Gay went down during 200-meter qualifying.

But the task force said a shorter schedule and fewer entrants was a good idea, because the meet taxes athletes emotionally, physically and financially and doesn't necessarily set them up for their best performance at the Olympics.

It acknowledged truncating the event could hurt ticket and TV revenue.

"But USATF must not lose sight of the fact that the purpose of the Olympic Trials is to select the best Olympic Team that will go on to perform at its peak at the Games themselves," the panel said. "Financial and other concerns should be secondary to this goal."

Athletes, too, must share this focus.

The task force said they should set out a yearlong plan and hold to it during an Olympic year, avoiding the temptation to cash in on success at Olympic trials by making money grabs at pre-Olympic events in Europe.

And it said athletes need to make more decisions for themselves — regarding their schedules, who coaches them and who they hire as agents, who the panel said had accumulated too much power in the sport.

Short on sympathy, the task force said many athletes needed to be more independent and able to roll with the punches in an Olympic atmosphere, where transportation, food and coaches' access to the track are often inferior to what they're conditioned to.

It lauded athletes such as Stephanie Brown-Trafton, who stunned everyone by winning the United States' first gold medal in women's discus in 76 years, and Walter Dix, who won bronze in the 100 and 200, for being able to take care of themselves.

On the other hand, the panel told of an athlete who complained because she couldn't get a TV in her room.

"The TV was not procured, as it is not a vital part of providing services to the team and was considered by staff to be an inappropriate request and expectation," the report stated.

The most scathing criticism was leveled at the American relay effort.

The men's and women's 400-meter teams each dropped the baton in qualifying — a debacle that punctuated the underachieving effort of the entire team.

The panel called for the American Relay Program — which spent more than $1 million and trained 173 athletes from 2003-08 — to be disbanded immediately, saying the concept was good but the execution wasn't.

There were a laundry list of problems. The panel described a general atmosphere of confusion, politicking and anxiety that ultimately led to bad exchanges between Darvis Patton and Gay in the men's race and Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams in the women's.

"The Task Force was troubled by the fact that the athletes themselves seemed to have no idea why the stick dropped, beyond saying it was 'one of those things' and the stick had a mind of its own," the report read.

The disorganization may have been best illustrated by the scene shortly before the women's relay when the runners were in the holding room, about to head to the starting line, with no idea where their bibs were. Their numbers had to be handwritten at the last second.

"One athlete was ... nearly crying when she spoke of how embarrassing it was to them," the report read. "That the bib debacle transpired just moments before taking the track did not help the team's fortunes, as it was clearly a very significant distraction and cause of negativity. The same issues played out in different ways" in the men's relay.

The task force called for better use to be made of the USATF-run training center in Chula Vista, Calif., and more reliance on developments in sports science and biomechanics, especially for long-distance runners, who generally don't take advantage of such.

The panel also recommended that with few exceptions, funding be focused on athletes in their early 20s — yet another in a series of harsh reality checks the sport needs to make to move forward.

"That may be a bitter pill to swallow for many athletes, some of whom may be winning national championships at age 27, 28 or older," the report said. "But if these athletes are not winning medals or earning top-10 world rankings by that point in their careers, USATF cannot afford to continue to provide additional funds to them."