November 27, 2008 (Park City, Utah) – Two-time Olympian Luke Bodensteiner has been named to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s (USSA) key athletics leadership role. USSA President and CEO Bill Marolt named Bodensteiner as vice president, athletics for the Olympic sports organization.

Bodensteiner will oversee the integration of the USSA’s six sports under a unified strategic plan. The plan will emphasize high performance services to those programs in sport education, sport science and sports medicine, as part of a consolidated effort to achieve our vision of being the best in the world.

“Luke is a talented leader who will help the USSA achieve its goals by ensuring each of our sport and high-performance programs have maximal impacts on our overall performance,” said Marolt. “He grew up competing in the USSA pipeline, had great success as an athlete and has a track record of accomplishment in his 12 years with our organization.”

A Wisconsin native, Bodensteiner competed as a cross country athlete with the U.S. Ski Team in the 1992 and 1994 Olympics. He also had a stellar career with the University of Utah, where he helped lead the Utes to an NCAA team title and won a pair of individual crowns, graduating in 1993.

“We have strong sport programs across the board right now. The leadership that we have in place for those sports is vital to achieving our goal of becoming the best in the world,” said Bodensteiner. “My job is to integrate those programs under a common strategic direction, and consolidate them around the effort to maximize medal opportunities for our best athletes, and the next generation of competitors.”

After starting with the USSA developing what is now known as the cross country SuperTour in 1996, Bodensteiner was named cross country manager in 1997, Nordic director in 2001 and associate athletic director for high performance in March of this year. Under his leadership, the USSA has seen some of its strongest Nordic performances ever with Nordic combined World Championship gold and silver from Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong. Under his long-term direction, the U.S. Ski Team has enjoyed some of its greatest cross country success with the USA now challenging for wins.

Bodensteiner will assume his new responsibilities immediately. “We have an incredible skiing and snowboarding culture that’s been developed by the hard work of hundreds of clubs, resorts and venues, thousands of coaches, a strong industry, and the ambitions of tens of thousands of athletes,” said Bodensteiner. “Ultimately, our job is to enable more of those athletes to achieve their goals than ever before.”

As an Olympic sports organization, the USSA oversees athletic programs from grassroots programs managed by a network of 400 local clubs from coast-to-coast, junior development and elite athletic programs. There are over 30,000 athletes, officials and coaches taking part in USSA programs, including nearly 200 athletes qualified for national teams. The USSA’s sports include alpine skiing, cross country, disabled alpine and cross country, freestyle, Nordic combined and ski jumping, and snowboarding.