West Vancouver (BC), Canada – Canada~Snowboard announced on Wednesday that Christian Hrab will be stepping down as the organization’s High Performance Program Director, effective June 30th.nHrab, who has served in the position for two years, guided the Canadian Snowboard Team to three medals at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and two back-to-back record breaking seasons on the FIS World Cup tour.

“Christian has played a key role in the success of our High Performance Program,” said Tom McIllfaterick, Chief Executive Officer of Canada~Snowboard. “Prior to that he built our coaching certification programs, and Long Term Athlete Development plans literally from scratch. His influence on our sport, and the development of athletes from the grass roots to the Olympic podium, cannot be overstated.”

Previous to his role of High Performance Director, Hrab has also served Canada~Snowboard as a National Team athlete and Head Coach, as well as Director of Sport Development.

“It has been an honor and an exciting challenge to have had the opportunity to lead our teams through a home Olympic Games and see athletes win gold and silver medals, as well as to work in partnership with the snowboard community and Own the Podium on such lofty goals,” said Christian Hrab. “The past two years have been an extraordinary and pleasant challenge. It has been such a joy to work with so many passionate people from world class athletes, to a highly competent integrated service team to world leading coaches. I am sad to leave all these great people, but the job is done. I am pleased to be moving on to other projects and new challenges.”

“Christian skilfully rallied the troops preparing for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and managed the Integrated Support Team (IST) personnel for the Canadian Snowboard Team,” said Nicholas Bass, High Performance Advisor at Own The Podium. “Christian Hrab played an integral part in the success of the team prior to and during the Olympics, both on and off the slopes.”

Canada~Snowboard is currently undergoing a review of its current programs, structure and running a thorough performance analysis of past results and performance systems in order to plan for the next decade. A search for a new High Performance Program Director will commence shortly.