‘A great opportunity’ Team leaders relish support role at Olympics by AMY ROSEWATER
ATLANTA — It is a quiet Monday after- noon at a local sports bar this summer, and on all of the fl at-screen TVs are the big sporting events of the day: soccer matches from Europe, baseball and news reports recapping Wimbledon. Unbeknownst to the waiter, however, is that he is about to serve lunch to a gentleman who in less than six months will be in the midst of the biggest sporting event of all — the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. John Millier, a one-time competitive ice dancer and longtime U.S. and world dance judge, will join Kathy Slack, a former pairs skater and U.S. judge and referee, in Sochi as a team leader for U.S. Figure Skating. Mitch Moyer, U.S. Figure Skating’s senior director of athlete high performance, will join Millier and Slack to assist with administrative issues in his role as li- aison between U.S. Figure Skating and the U.S. Olympic Committee. At the Games, it will be up to Millier and
Slack to make sure that every detail — whether it is scrounging up a full-length mirror or track-
ing down a lost pair of skates — is taken care of, so the U.S. skaters can do their best on the biggest stage. Telling someone inside or outside of the skating community that you are a judge or a coach is easy to do. Explaining the job of a team leader is more diffi cult. “I don’t do a good job telling people what I do because the job changes every day, every minute,” Millier said between bites of a turkey panini. “It’s never the same experience twice.” Offi cially, the title for Millier and Slack in
Sochi is team manager and technical advisor, but in reality, their roles span from handling com- petitive matters such as scheduling and media preparation to medical and doping issues to trav- el, logistics and security concerns. Between the two of them, Millier and Slack
will attend every practice and competition in- volving a U.S. skater. T eir cell phones will ring constantly, and they will receive countless text messages, as they expect to work around the clock during the full month they will be in Sochi for the Games.
T e way Millier sees his role is twofold.
First, he said, a team leader must be proactive and plan as much as possible when it comes to travel details and scouting a competition loca- tion. (He even jokes that he is perfect for this part of the job since he is so hyperorganized that his friends refer to him as the type-A character, Monica, from the TV show “Friends.”) T e sec- ond part is on the reactive side, being able to handle whatever is thrown his way. Team lead- ers also have to be well-versed in the rules of the sport and what might constitute fi ling a protest, which is why they must have their eyes on the fi eld of play at all times. Perhaps most of all, they have to be psychol-
ogists and relationship experts, and over the past few years, Millier and Slack have picked up on some of the skaters’ precompetition needs and superstitions. Millier has even been in contact with a sports psychologist from the U.S. Olym- pic Committee to get some tips. Millier and Slack have learned which skaters want to be left alone before they skate and which ones need to
Parker, Dalley share Vancouver experiences By Amy Rosewater
In addition to a nearly 60– page handbook, John Millier and Kathy Slack have two other valuable resources to turn to leading up to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi: Lorrie Parker and Richard Dalley. Parker and Dalley were the
Olympic team leaders in Vancouver Richard Dalley and Lorrie Parker
16 NOVEMBER 2013
team leaders for Team USA at the 2010 Winter Games in Van- couver. They have shared their experiences with Millier and Slack and are confi dent the duo will thrive in Sochi. “They’ll be a terrifi c team,”
said Parker, who made her team-leading debut as an assis- tant to Slack at a Junior Grand Prix event in Germany. Parker and Dalley made
a pretty good pairing, too. A former competitive skater in singles and pairs, Parker later moved into the world of offi ciat- ing and served as a team leader at numerous events. Dalley was an ice dancer who placed fourth at the 1984 Olympics with Judy Blumberg. A couple of years be- fore the Winter Games in Van-
couver, Parker and Dalley were named team leaders. “I was born into a skating
family,” Parker said. “My mom judged, my uncle judged, my grandparents judged and my dad was a chief accountant at nationals, so it kind of made sense for me to be involved in skating, too.” Of the two, Parker is the
more outgoing. In addition to her passion for skating, Parker was a cheerleader at Oklahoma State and has taught cheerlead-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68