Topic: News: Wes Barnett Takes On New Job with the USOC

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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USOC Adds Three Team Leaders to Enhance Performance Services
U S Olympic Committee

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The U.S. Olympic Committee has announced the addition of three new Team Leaders to its Performance Services Team. Performance Services, which includes the former divisions of Sports Medicine, Coaching and Sport Sciences, has added Olympians Wes Barnett and Jay T. Kearney, Ph.D., as well as long-time U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) executive Alan Ashley. The addition will help provide an integrated approach to the support and services provided to NGBs, coaches and athletes in the areas of sports medicine, sports science and coaching.

Performance Services will utilize multiple, integrated service teams to assist Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls with the goal of ultimate preparedness at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Each portfolio of sports (sport-folios) will benefit from a multi-disciplinary approach of specific expertise to address similar training and competitive needs. For example, endurance-based sports share common physical, technical, tactical, mental, and management strategies and can benefit from a consistent and knowledgeable team of service providers.

"This change to an integrated structure affords us to provide extra resources to our USOC family of NGBs, coaches and athletes," said Doug Ingram, Managing Director of Performance Services. "The addition of these team leaders will allow us to setup a targeted customer base in order to improve the quality of services and support needed to enhance performance at the Games and ultimately sustain competitive excellence among our U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams."

Barnett, a two-time U.S. Olympic Team Member ('92, '96) in the sport of weightlifting returns to the USOC after four years serving as the executive director for USA Weightlifting. Barnett was one of the original USOC Sports Partnership team members from 2000-02 and served as a Drug Control Administrator from 1997-2000.

Barnett reigned over the U.S. heavyweight division of USA Weightlifting for eight years as national champion, among those a 1999 U.S. title that came just six months after returning to the sport following a bout with cancer. He finished 13th at the 1992 Games in Barcelona and followed that up with a sixth-place finish at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. At the World Championships in 1997, he finished second in the clean-and-jerk and was a bronze medalist in the total (clean-and-jerk and snatch lifts combined), which was the first U.S. weightlifting medal in more than two decades.

Kearney, who worked as a sport physiologist in the Sport Science Division from 1986-2000, is also returning to the USOC. He brings expertise accumulated in a 30-plus year career focused primarily on optimization of elite-level athletic performance. During this time he has coached, competed at the international level, and served the needs of coaches and athletes.

During his six years in the private sector, Kearney has served as a Vice President and a member of the executive teams in both HealtheTech, a start up health technology company, and Carmichael Training Systems, the leading company in the provision of remote access performance coaching for elite to aspiring athletes.

Kearney made the U.S. Olympic Team in flatwater canoe/kayak for the boycotted 1980 Olympic Games. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland and taught and developed active research programs at Appalachian State University and The University of Kentucky.

Ashley comes to the USOC after serving 16 years for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, most recently as Vice President of Athletics. Ashley, a former skier at the University of Colorado in Boulder, was a key contributor to the rise of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team in recent years. In his role as VP of Athletics, Ashley helped manage the coaching, training and organizational structure for six Olympic (Alpine, Cross Country Nordic Combined and Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding) and two Paralympic (Alpine and Cross Country Skiing) sports involving 170 elite athletes, 125 elite coaches and administrative staff, 320 USSA Clubs, 3000 club coaches and16,000 USSA member athletes.

Ashley and his staff established a model for elite performance by carefully evaluating the international competition and then tailoring support and services that could match or beat the competition. Key to this support was the establishment of first-class applied sport science and medicine program and a renewed emphasis on coaching and coaches' education.

Prior to his work at the USSA, Ashley was the Director of the Jeremy Ranch Cross Country Ski Area, served as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 1989 FIS Cross Country World Cup in Park City, UT and served as the Director of Skiing for the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For more information, please contact the USOC Communications Division at (719) 866-4529.