POSTED: Thursday September 24th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Olympic Committee Names Utah Athletic Foundation as Community Olympic Development Program

The UAF operates the Utah Olympic Oval (UOO) in Kearns, Utah, and the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) in Park City, Utah, and provides programs in 10 winter sports.

COLORADO
SPRINGS, COLO. – The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) today announced the
Utah Athletic Foundation (UAF) as a new Community Olympic Development
Program (CODP). The UAF operates the Utah Olympic Oval (UOO) in Kearns,
Utah, and the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) in Park City, Utah, and provides
programs in 10 winter sports.

“We are excited to add the Community Olympic Development Program
designation to our efforts in developing athletes in our core winter
sports,” said Colin Hilton, UAF President and CEO. “In addition to
cultivating sport-specific skills among the athletes, the programs also
promote responsibility, leadership, teamwork and community involvement.
We look forward to increasing the number of athletes participating in
our core winter sports and powerfully continuing the Olympic legacy.”

Several programs are already in place at the UAF and carry the CODP
designation, including sport development, coaching clinics, athlete
seminars and a mentoring program. Among them:

• F.A.S.T. (Facilitated Athlete Sport Training) is a speedskating
program at the UOO that offers individual training alongside
world-class athletes.

• FLY Freestyle is a year-round aerials, moguls and freeride
progressive program at the UOP that combines gymnastics with skiing.

• The UOP Bobsled and Skeleton Development Program provides
professional coaching and a sequence of training opportunities for
developing athletes, preparing them to maximize individual potential.

• Free coaching seminars and clinics center around the mission of
“Helping Coaches Help Athletes,” and assist in developing world-class
coaches to strengthen and expand athlete pipelines.

• Free seminars and workshops assist athletes with outside information
to expand their personal training programs and development, covering
topics such as sports psychology, nutrition, motivation strategies and
media training.

• “Champions Creating Champions” is a mentoring program in development
dedicated to inspiring and empowering young athletes. Working with
local children in the Park City and Salt Lake City communities, young
athletes will be partnered with their heroes to inspire and promote
passion and courage.

While the sports of speedskating, freestyle skiing, bobsled and
skeleton are currently part of the CODP designation, additional sport
programs at the UOO and UOP which may in the future carry the CODP
designation are figure skating, hockey, luge, cross-country skiing, ski
jumping and nordic combined.

“The UAF has been a critical partner with the USOC, in part by
enhancing their world-class facilities for America’s best winter sport
athletes at the national and youth level,” said Alicia McConnell, USOC
Director, Athlete Services and Programs. “Through the leadership of
Colin Hilton, an environment of excellence has been created for both
the national team-level athletes who will be heading to Vancouver early
next year, as well as for youth development programs. We look forward
to more young people in Utah having the opportunity to participate in
Olympic winter sports.”

A Utah non-profit organization, the UAF is the caretaker of the legacy
facilities from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The UAF inherited the
UOP and UOO in May 2002 after being designated by the State of Utah to
manage their post-Games operations. More information can be found at
http://www.olyparks.com.

The UAF is one of six current CODPs, including the Boys & Girls
Clubs of Metro Atlanta (Atlanta, Ga.), the Midwest Weightlifting Club
(Lake County, Ind.), the Moorestown Weightlifting Club (Moorestown,
N.J.), the San Antonio Sports Foundation (San Antonio, Texas), and the
Springfield Greene Country Parks and Recreation (Springfield, Mo.).

The Community Olympic Development Program, in collaboration with the
National Governing Bodies, develops community sport programs and
impacts developmental athlete performance by building partnerships,
accessing community resources, and leveraging USOC resources to create,
develop and enhance Olympic sport feeder systems. Athlete programs also
provide services and resources to elite-level athletes, not only to
enhance their achievement of excellence in the Olympic and Paralympic
Games, but also in life.

For more information, please contact the USOC Communications Division at (719) 866-4529, or visit http://www.teamusa.org.

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Keywords · USOC · Utah Olympic Foundation · Colin Hilton

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