United States Olympic Endowment announces 2022 award winners
by USOPC
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic Endowment today announced the recipients of its three awards that will be presented during the annual awards ceremony on December 16 at the New York Athletic Club in New York City. Olympic fencer, Peter Westbrook, will be the recipient of the George M. Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award; Paul George, world champion in pairs figure skating, will be recognized with the William E. Simon Award; Olympic Team Handball member, Cindy Stinger, will be the honoree of the General Douglas MacArthur Award. Each of these individuals will be honored for their commitment and contributions to the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Peter Westbrook is a six-time Olympian and a 13-time U.S. National Individual Sabre Champion. He competed in 11 World Championships and six Pan American Games winning eleven medals, including three gold. Peter is the founder of the Peter Westbrook Foundation, which uses fencing to transform the lives of youth, and which has produced 25 NCAA and National Champions and has sent sixteen athletes to the Olympic Games. The Steinbrenner award is presented annually to honor outstanding members of the Olympic and Paralympic family who have contributed to sport through management, sport organization endeavors or the enhancement of competitive opportunities; and who have displayed qualities of leadership, ethical conduct, and dedicated responsibility during a longstanding commitment to sport.
In 1961, U.S. figure skating faced devastation when the entire U.S. World Figure Skating Team perished in a plane crash en route to Prague. But it was also the year that Paul George and his sister, Elizabeth, won the United States Junior Pairs title in figure skating. Paul’s life reflects distinguished service to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and numerous other organizations. Currently, Paul serves as President of the U.S. Figure Skating Foundation and Treasurer of the USA Hockey Foundation. The Simon award is given to an individual or group who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Cindy Stinger made her Olympic debut on the U.S. Team Handball in 1984 in Los Angeles and continued in the 1988 and 1992 Summer Games. Cindy was MVP of the Gold Medal U.S. Team Handball and ran the torch in three Olympic Torch Relays in the U.S. and managed to balance her athletic career with her work for the USOC focusing on its Drug Control Program and as manager of Youth and Community Programs from 1987-1996 and has served as the Manager of the U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Alumni Association since 1997. The Douglas MacArthur award is given to an individual who has exhibited exemplary service to the USOPC and to athletes.
The USOE was established by the USOC (now the USOPC) in 1984 to administer and invest the corpus of endowed funds that resulted from the surplus of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984. A nonprofit organization, its objective is to support the USOPC and its member organizations, with the overall aim of enhancing Olympic and Paralympic sports in the United States. A separate entity from the USOPC, the USOE’s net assets have grown to approximately $240 million, while awarding grants to the USOPC and its member organizations totaling $363 million over the last 38 years.