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What makes an Olympic organizer good? More to the point: What makes an Olympic organizer so good that she is pursued by successive host cities to organize one Olympics after another?

We can really only refer to a single case study here, as there's only been a single person head-hunted in the fashion described. That would be Cathy Priestner Allinger, who—as the executive vice-president of sport and Games operations for Vancouver 2010—is working on her fourth Winter Olympics.

There are at least two competent theories about what makes Priestner good. Her success may derive from her natural athleticism, which links her organically to the business of high-end sports. That theory is supported by the story of the 11-year-old Priestner, introduced to speed skating casually by a neighbour in 1968, going on to win her first national championship the same year, and then proceeding to accumulate eight world championship medals, six national titles and an Olympic silver medal in 1976.

Another theory might be that Priestner has a unique ability to see beyond daunting challenges and envision the true promise of a given situation. That theory has merit if you consider Priestner in the years after competitive skating, when—with little more on her resumé than coaching experience and a facilities management certificate from the University of Pittsburgh—she was hired by the Calgary Olympics as the general manager of the speed skating oval. There, Priestner managed to turn the facility into one of the most enduring legacies of the 1988 Calgary Games.

People noticed Priestner's impact in Calgary. But something about her vision of the future, her ability to convert the oval into a working part of the city, also put her in line to assume much greater responsibilities. She was recruited by Salt Lake City, host of the 2002 Games, as managing director of sport in 1997. In 2002, she was plucked out of Utah to be the managing director of Games operations for Turin's 2006 turn. Then came Vancouver.

Priestner's latest role sees her directly responsible for completion and management of facilities, accreditation, medical and anti-doping functions and work force, as well as National Olympic Committee services, which involve acting as the main liaison to all visiting nations: 80 for the Olympics, and 45 for the Paralympics.

Perhaps most visibly, Priestner's EVP role also sees her sharing responsibility for Games operations with Terry Wright, EVP of service and Games operations. Priestner's part of that portfolio will include the actual execution of events in the various Olympic facilities and the overall experience that spectators enjoy. Priestner will be responsible for a volunteer work force of up to 23,000 people during the Games, another 8,000 volunteers during the Paralympic Games, and 3,000 additional employees who will be hired over the six-month period leading up to the Games.

Priestner in person doesn't seem overly concerned with analyzing her own success. Having once lived in the crucible of high-performance sports competition, her personality—easy laughter, relaxed manner, direct speech—suggests that no business challenge will ever be quite as intense as 500 metres across unforgiving ice. In fact, you could say that Priestner chose her career less than it chose her. She might still be the GM of the Calgary Oval had Salt Lake City not come calling. Likewise, she was happily ensconced as the CEO of the Utah Athletic Foundation—overseeing the legacy facilities she'd been in charge of setting up—when Turin ramped up its one-target recruitment drive.

How badly did Turin want Priestner? Very badly, you'd have to say. Badly enough to fly over her and her husband, wine and dine them in Asti, drive them around in a Maserati and then offer both of them jobs. Badly enough that when she first said no, organizing committee member Marcello Pochettino phoned her from his yacht and announced: "That is not acceptable. You are coming to Turin."

They finally made the big offer, so off Priestner went. She took on more responsibility, this time including the construction of athlete's villages. How did Priestner adapt to the new challenge of high-volume real estate development?

"The team is everything," she explains. "I learned early to hire people who know a lot more than I do. Whoever I hire is an expert in their field."

"Cathy knows how to hire people, train them and get them to work as a team," echoes Fraser Bullock, CEO of the organizing committee in Salt Lake that hired Priestner in 1997. "She gets along with people, builds relationships and networks. She's just a delight to be around."

But if her personal style fits the job, Bullock also synthesizes those two earlier theories about Priestner in a way that suggests how her work will be remembered in Vancouver. "Cathy is a champion of putting the athlete first, which is one of the reasons our event was successful," he says. "And she was always a champion of legacy."

Priestner stresses the competition above all: the event, the physical site, the snow, the ice, the quality and technical challenges of the venue. But she also knows how to accommodate the unique culture of each sport, from snowboarding to figure skating. "I want every one of our client groups to walk away thinking it was the best experience they've ever had," Priestner says. "So from the moment of arrival at the venue, it's gotta be wow."

As for legacy, it's easy to forget that many people predicted the Calgary Oval would be a white elephant. Instead, Priestner's design suggestions and program planning turned it into the hub of a national speed skating program that has since vaulted Canada upwards to join the Dutch as one of the most senior-ranked speed skating nations in the world. In Salt Lake, meanwhile, says Bullock: "Every one of our venues is utilized heavily today, just as planned."

Standing in the wood-beamed and glass-wrapped Richmond Oval or the Olympic Centre in Vancouver, it's hard not to be optimistic. These buildings are just too dynamic, too beautiful to be mothballed. "We'd be a failure if we didn't leave these sorts of opportunities for our young kids," Priestner declares.

So, is she off to Sochi, Russia, next for the 2014 Winter Games? Priestner gets that question a lot, but the answer remains "an adamant no." Maybe she'll retire, she says. But in the next breath, she suggests how unlikely that might be. "I'm quite open," she says. "I like change. I get bored easily."

Sochi, don't lose that number.