US Team Handball Women's National Team

For the last 10 years, 1996 Olympian Dawn Allinger Lewis has devoted a significant part of her life to the Olympic Movement.   Whether as an athlete, sports administrator, board member, or athlete representative, she has is committed to the development of sport.  

 

After a standout basketball career, Allinger Lewis discovered the sport of handball in 1991 while participating in the US Olympic Committee (USOC) internship program.   Since being invited to the national team in 1993, s he has played in over 100 international games and was a member of the 1995 Pan American gold medal team and the 1993 (12th place team) and 1995 World Championship team.   Dawn played professional handball from 1996-98 in Norway, where she also coached handball and basketball.   She is a five-time gold medal winner at the U.S. National Championships where she received MVP honors in 1994 and 1999.   Most recently, she was a member of the 1999 and 2003 Pan American Teams that placed fourth.

 

Having earned a b asketball scholarship from Washington State University, Dawn was selected to the WSU All-Decade Team, won Pac-10 All-Academic honors three times and helped lead her team to the NCAA Tournament.   After graduating with a degree in Sport Management, minors in business and coaching, she received a NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship and began working towards her Masters in Athletic Administration while serving as an assistant basketball coach at Montana State University where she has since been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

 

Allinger Lewis is currently an Assistant Coach for the Women's National Team, holding the position for one year.   She assumes all coaching roles and administers international team tours and competition, including the USA Cup.   Having served in a plethora of other roles, Dawn has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1996, served as the Vice-President for Women on the USA Team Handball Executive Committee from 2000-2004 and continues to act as a member of the Women's Committee.   Dawn was recently bestowed the honor of being one of ten athletes in the world selected to represent the Athletes Commission of the International Handball Federation.

 

Formerly, Allinger Lewis acted as the Manager of Sport at the Utah Olympic Park, home of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games for bobsled, skeleton, luge and ski jumping, assisting in the development of youth programs and winter sport.   She also worked as a journalist for NBC during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and currently serves as the network's team handball television analyst.   The Athens Games marked the first time that team handball made the US television broadcast which Dawn called more than 20 games across NBC and its cable channels.   She joined the NBC team again in Turin, Italy for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games as an Associate Producer.  

 

Right to Play, US Olympic Committee Legacy Scholarship Committee and the Bozeman Schools Foundation are organizations Allinger Lewis volunteers for.  

 

Dawn, husband Mark and two chocolate Labrador Retrievers -- Bridger and Madison -- reside in Bozeman, Montana.