HOUSTON -- Allan Steinfeld, a revolutionary in the sport of road racing, is the 2015 recipient of the Robert Giegengack Award. The Robert Giegengack Award is USATF’s highest honor for contributions to Athletics through volunteerism.

The award was presented to Steinfeld Saturday at the 2015 Jesse Owens Awards Ceremony at USATF’s Annual Meeting in Houston.

In more than three decades of contributions to the sport, Steinfeld worked his way from a volunteer with the New York Road Runners to CEO, putting in tireless hours improving and growing the New York City Marathon into the world-class event it is today. Steinfeld began as a volunteer with NYRR and joined the staff full-time in 1978, when then-CEO Fred Lebow convinced him to leave his position as a high school teacher.

Steinfeld became the technical director of the New York City Marathon in 1981 and continued that post until 1993, when he took over as NYRR’s president during Lebow’s battle with cancer. Steinfeld added CEO and New York City Marathon race director to his responsibilities following Lebow’s passing in 1994, and remained at the top of the organization until his retirement in 2005. A member of NYRR since 1963, Steinfeld was inducted into the NYRR Hall of Fame in 2014.

Steinfeld served as race director for 12 New York City Marathons and instituted a chute system that allowed the club to record places and times for hundreds of runners finishing in packs. Steinfeld and Lebow developed a technique for accurate measurement of road races around the world through the Association of International Marathons.

The Robert Giegengack Award was established in 1982 in recognition of the late Yale University track & field coach's "superior and outstanding contributions to the sport and to the organization as an official, coach, and administrator." It is awarded by the Board of Directors to a person who excels in contributing to the excellence and high standards of the sport of Athletics. The Robert Giegengack Award is USATF's highest accolade for contributions to Athletics in any category of volunteer work.

A complete list of previous recipients may be found here.