In hockey, defensemen are often assigned to some of the least glamorous tasks. Though critical to their team's victories, they'll rarely make the highlights.

Even off the field, blue liner Angela Ruggiero '02-'04 works under the radar. But her latest task can hardly be considered unglamorous. As an athlete representative on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Ruggiero is part of a panel evaluating the hosting ability of cities vying to host the 2018 Winter Games.

In other words, she gets to take trips to Munich, Annecy (France) and Pyeongchang (South Korea) to decide which of the three cities would be the best location for the Olympics.

Of course, the panel will do more than just city hop; it will have to study each city's ability to build a site and manage crowds. The process will likely take advantage of Ruggiero's government degree from Harvard, but her findings and those of her peers won't be revealed until 2011.

In May, the IOC members will meet with officials from the candidate cities before releasing a report. Two months later, on July 6, the IOC will vote on the location of the 2018 Games.

Angela Ruggiero's election as an athlete representative on the IOC is the latest in a long list of accolades. An Olympian since she was 15, the defenseman has accumulated four Olympic Medals, including a Gold in 1998. In 2002 and 2006, she was named the top defenseman in the Olympic Games, and has been named the top defenseman at the World Championships four times. Ruggiero earned four All-America honors while with the Crimson and won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2004.