CARIBOU – Maine Winter Sports Center vice president John Farra has been named the Nordic director for the United States Ski Team in Park City, Utah.

Farra, a 1992 Olympian, has been with the MWSC since 2002 and a vice president since 2005.

He will now head up a team of 10 coaches and others who will help athletes prepare for Olympic, World Cup and world championship competition. He will also be involved in setting policy and direction for the development of Nordic sports throughout the country.

A native of Saratoga, N.Y., Farra served as the MWSC youth ski coach before he was elevated to vice president of programs in 2005.

“John has made profound contributions to the Maine Winter Sports Center since he arrived in 2002,” MWSC president Andy Shepard said in a release. “His calm, empowering leadership style has been instrumental in creating one of the top programming and development staffs in the ski world. … While we are sorry to see John go, we are all very excited for him in this new opportunity.”

Farra helped coordinate programs from youth ski events to major competitions such as the North American long distance cross country ski championships last April in Presque Isle.

“Working with community members throughout Maine has proven [to me] just how resilient and dedicated Mainers can be,” he said in a statement. “It has also shown me how magical it is when kids discover the joy of skiing and being outside in the winter, and when those kids infect their whole families with that joy.”

Farra, who competed in cross country skiing in the Olympics in Albertville, France, is a University of Utah graduate and former coach. He also spent six years at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Farra and his wife, Tess Miner, won the North American Wife Carrying Championship in Newry in 2006.

Other former MWSC staff members include Per Nilsson, the U.S. Biathlon team head coach; University of Utah coach Eli Brown, and Max Saenger, the biathlon sport manager for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.