By Peter Q. Graves

John Aalberg will become the new Director of Sports for the FIS World Nordic Championships at Oslo for 2011. Aalberg a former member of the US Ski Team, and the USA Olympic team, began his college skiing career in the United States at the University of Utah. Aalberg, 49, is currently both the Director of sports for the Nordic events of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and the venue's general manager for Whistler Olympic park, where all the nordic events will be conducted in February.

Previously, Aalberg was in charge of Cross-Country skiing at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He has also worked on sports preparations for Torino in 2006 and the FIS World Championships in 2007 in Sapporo. Aalberg has long been an FIS Technical Delegate and has served at many world cups.

Following the Vancouver Games and Para Games, Aalberg will return to his homeland, Norway, to begin this new post for the Oslo Worlds, starting in April 2010.

In making the announcement CEO of the Oslo Championships, Asne Havnelid said, "John has an enormous amount of event expertise to offer , and he is assuming the Director of Sports job very well and we are proud to have him."