Press Release: USOC International Relations

TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=right border=0>TBODY>TR>TD>TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=150 border=0>TBODY>TR>TD colSpan=2>IMG src="/_images/articles/OldStories/USOCLogo_article.jpg">/TD>/TR>TR>TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; PADDING-TOP: 5px">SPAN class=caption>B>/B>/SPAN>/TD>TD width=12> /TD>/TR>/TBODY>/TABLE>/TD>/TR>/TBODY>/TABLE>B>USOC Announces Additions to International Relations Team/B>BR>BR>COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The United States Olympic Committee has announced the appointment of two internationally seasoned and respected directors to its international relations team as a part of an overall strategy to better serve and interact with the international Olympic and sporting community.BR>BR>Carolina Bayon has been named to the new position of Director of International Cooperation and Policy and Dragomir Cioroslan to the new position of Director of International Strategies and Development.BR>BR>Bayón joins the USOC from the International Olympic Committee where she served as one of four senior managers in Olympic Solidarity, a department of the IOC that supports the development of Olympic sport among the 203 National Olympic Committees around the world. In her IOC role, Bayon was responsible for the development of programs to support NOCs world-wide in improving their management, as well as for relations with the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) and the 42 National Olympic Committees in the Americas. BR>BR>Cioroslan is a three-time Olympic weightlifter for his home country of Romania for whom he won a bronze medal in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and has been a sports official and administrator for more than 30 years in the Olympic Movement.BR>BR>The appointments follow the announcements earlier this year of nomination of U.S. IOC Member Bob Ctvrtlik as USOC Vice President, International, and Robert Fasulo as Chief of International Relations, who joined the USOC following an extensive international sport experience with the Association of Summer Olympic Sports Federations. BR>BR>"The USOC leadership has identified our international strategy as one of five key themes of our strategic vision in the years to come, so it was essential that we attract individuals with real and proven international experience to assist us in this effort," said Fasulo. "Carolina and Dragomir will not only lend credibility and recognition to our actions, but their involvement will also demonstrate the USOC's exceptional commitment to being a more engaged and reliable partner to the international community. With these appointments we have also expanded the USOC's language capability to be able to communicate in more than seven languages, which is another key component of our international strategy."BR>BR>Originally from Colombia, but raised in the United States, Bayon was the manager of National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee Services at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. She also served as National Olympic Committees Relations Coordinator for the Americas at the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney, Australia.BR>BR>Bayón will be responsible for supervising all National Olympic Committee and international Olympic Solidarity outreach programs. Fluent in Spanish and English with a working knowledge of French, she will act as the senior multi-lingual interface with all International sports organizations and will manage relations with international non-governmental organizations. Bayón will be based in the USOC's new international office in Irvine, Calif., and her appointment is effective December 1.BR>BR>In addition to his bronze medal in the 1984 Games, Cioroslan won three medals at the World Championships in 1983 and 1984 and won two medals at the European Championships in 1979 and 1983. He was the Head Coach for the U.S. National Team from 1993-2003 and was U.S. Olympic coach for the men's teams in Atlanta and Sydney. BR>BR>A naturalized U.S. citizen, Cioroslan is fluent in five languages including English, French, Romanian, Hungarian and Russian. He is an executive board member of the International Weightlifting Federation and serves as Vice President of the organization. He currently is a member of the USOC staff in the area of Sports Partnership and is directing the sport of Modern Pentathlon, its athletes and programs under the supervision of the USOC.BR>BR>He will be responsible for U.S. international leadership development, National Governing Body international relations strategies and support. He will be the USOC interface with other divisions and will oversee NOC exchanges with an emphasis on international performance programming, building organizational capacities for the betterment of other NOCs, their athletes, coaches and officials around the world. He will be based in Colorado Springs and his appointment is effective November 1.BR>BR>For more information contact the USOC's Communications Division at 719 866-4529. This press release is also available on the USOC's media-specific website www.usocpressbox.org.BR>BR>B>I>As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.BR>BR>These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation./B>/I>BR>BR>B>Your complete source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only./B>BR>