Cathy Priestner Allinger, a former Canadian Olympic speed-skating silver medalist, has been hired by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee as director of ice sports.
Allinger will be responsible for coordinating plans for the 2002 Winter Games with the national governing bodies of the speed-skating, curling, hockey and figure skating.Already, she has represented the organizing committee at the recent U.S. Speed Skating meetings in Milwaukee.
Her other duties include working with officials at the state's speed-skating oval, located at the Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, to bring young athletes into the sport.
Allinger said U.S. Speed Skating is considering establishing a national training center at the oval next year and moving the U.S. short-track speed-skating team to Utah.
Before being hired by the organizing committee, Allinger worked for the University of Calgary as general manager of the Olympic Oval and associate director of athletes.
She was the first woman in Canada to win an Olympic medal in speed-skating, a silver medal in the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.