An another era, the sworn enemy of the United States Olympic Committee would have been a Soviet-bloc country, or maybe a wayward judge.

This year, it's Subway.

Yes, the fast-food company specializing in big sandwiches it swears will make you lose weight.

At the end of its press conference here Thursday kicking off the Games, the USOC presented a press release taking Subway to task for running commericials implying it is an official USOC sponsor.

The commercials in question star swimmer Michael Phelps, and the USOC said it had no issue with an athlete taking part in such advertisements. But board member Lisa Baird, the USOC's chief marketing officer, said that Subway's commercials "imply there is an association with our Olympic marks and our athletes and what that does is hurt the greater US Olympic team.''

In essence, the board is charging that Subway is attempting to get the PR benefits of being an official Olympic sponsor without actually paying for it --- money the USOC says its athletes depend on.

Subway released a statement saying it disagreed with the assertion to which Baird said "well, we disagree with them. ... They need to know we feel they have crossed the line and we are going to continue to be right after them.''

USOC board members also said they would use the Games to continue to try to repair some relationships that some felt were at the heart of the International Olympic Committee's decision to quickly defeat bid by Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games. Those games were instead awarded to Rio de Janeiro, making that city the first in South America to serve as a host.

USOC board member Anita de Frantz, however, insisted it was that latter fact that was a bigger issue in Chicago's failure to land the Games, a decision made last October, than any perceived conflicts with the IOC (which Times Olympics reporter Ron Judd laid out nicely last year).

"IOC members felt it would be better to go to a part of the world where the Games had never been hosted,'' she said. "That, to me, is the true story of what happened. Will they allow us to host the Games again? Of course. ... Timing is an issue sometimes and making the best case and who your competition is is an issue sometimes. But I'm absolutely confident that the US is a place that can host the games again and again.''

The US is not currently scheduled to host any future games and USOC members said they were not sure when they may again make a bid.