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JULIE O'NEILL
Team Leader, U.S. Paralympics Sport Performance; 2015 U.S. Parapan American Team Chef de Mission
Julie O’Neill currently serves as the Team Leader of Paralympic Sport Performance for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). In this position, O’Neill oversees the high performance planning and support processes and sport development projects for the 28 Summer & Winter Paralympic sports. She also directs the day-to-day operations for the “internal Paralympic NGBs”, the 5 Paralympic sports managed by the USOC – Athletics, Cycling, Swimming and Alpine & Nordic Skiing. She began her USOC career in 2003, when she joined U.S. Paralympics as an Associate Director and Head Coach of the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Team.
Through the 2008 Paralympic Games, O’Neill directed all high performance planning and coaching support for U.S. Paralympics Swimming including implementing the Paralympic Swimming Resident Program at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. In this position, O’Neill also developed the national certification processes for Paralympic swimming officials and coaches.
Under her leadership, the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team achieved unparalleled success as the team finished first in the medal standings for the first time, winning 17 gold medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games. With 44 total medals, nine more than they took home from Athens (2004), the team proved their ability on an elite international stage. The U.S. swimmers set a total of 16 world records, 23 Paralympic records, 48 Pan American records and 99 American records.
O’Neill was involved with coaching Paralympic swimming on an international level for over a decade, first serving as an assistant at the 1998 IBSA World Championships in Madrid. She also served as an assistant coach for the 2000 U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team and made the jump to head coach for the U.S. at the 2002 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships in Mar del Plata, Argentina (the first female Head Coach appointment for any US team to a major international championship).
In 2006, O’Neill led the U.S. team that won the overall medal count at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa. It was the first time the U.S. had won the medal count at an IPC World Championships or Paralympic Games in the sport of swimming. The U.S. performance led to O’Neill being selected as the 2006 U.S. Olympic Committee Paralympic Coach of the Year.
Prior to her work with the USOC, O’Neill spent the previous eight years as a swim coach and administrator for various USA Swimming clubs including Rocket Aquatics (Syracuse, N.Y.), Kansas City Blazers, Liverpool Jets (Liverpool, N.Y.) and West Coast Aquatics (San Jose, Calif.). She is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian and Ohio State University with a Masters of Arts degree in Slavic and East European Studies.
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LARRY PROBST
USOC Chairman
Larry Probst was elected chairman of the United States Olympic Committee board of directors in October 2008. In addition, he was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee in September 2013. He was appointed chair of the Olympic Channel Commission in June 2015 and of the IOC Press Commission in April 2014. Additionally he has served in the IOC International Relations Commission since March 2011 and the IOC Radio and Television Commission since April 2014.
In addition, he is a member of the Association of National Olympic Committees Executive Council and the Pan American Sports Organization Executive Committee, while serving as chair of the ANOC Marketing and New Sources of Finance Commission. Probst is also executive chairman of Electronic Arts, the world’s leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment. After joining EA in 1984, he served as president from December 1990 to October 1997, and was named CEO in May 1991, a role he held until April 2007. Probst has been on EA’s board of directors since January 1991, was elected to the position of chairman of the board of directors in July 1994 and become the executive chairman in March 2013.
Before joining EA, Probst was a national sales manager at Activision Inc. and a national accounts manager at Clorox. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Delaware.
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SCOTT BLACKMUN
USOC CEO
Scott Blackmun became chief executive officer of the United States Olympic Committee in January 2010. He is an ex-officio member of the USOC’s board of directors and has served on the International Olympic Committee’s Marketing Commission since March 2011. He became a member of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport in January 2015.
Under Blackmun’s direction, Team USA topped the overall medal counts at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and 2012 Olympic Games, and won the most medals at any Olympic Winter Games held outside North America in 2014. The USOC nearly doubled net philanthropic support in 2009-12 from the previous quad and launched the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, which in 2014 helped generate more than $7.5 million in direct support to Team USA athletes. Blackmun also led the organization in negotiating a revenue-sharing agreement with the IOC. In 2012, the USOC was named Sports League of the Year and Blackmun was named Sports Executive of the Year by SportsBusiness Journal.
Blackmun had a previous stint at the USOC, serving as acting chief executive officer (2001), senior managing director of sport (2000) and general counsel (1999). Following his departure in 2001, Blackmun served as the chief operating officer of Anschutz Entertainment Group – one of the world’s most respected presenters of sports and entertainment events – from 2002-06. Previously, Blackmun spent more than 20 years practicing law in Colorado.