A Park City police officer arrested the president and CEO of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association in Park Meadows on a drunken driving charge on St. Patrick’s Day, the Police Department said, an embarrassing episode coming a month after a highly successful Winter Olympics for American skiers and snowboarders.

Bill Marolt, 66, faces a preliminary charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, a class B misdemeanor punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine upon conviction. The City Hall prosecutor had not screened the case for charges by midday Monday. The police booked Marolt into the Summit County Jail at 10:47 p.m. on March 17. He was released after $1,300 bail was posted 34 minutes later.

“This is something that I take very seriously both as an individual and as a leader of our organization. I apologize for any disruption this may cause to the organization for which I’m so passionate,” Marolt said in a prepared statement released by the association, known sometimes as the USSA.

The USSA did not make Marolt available for comment.

Rick Ryan, a Police Department captain, said Marolt was driving a 2009 Audi outbound on Deer Valley Drive at just after 9 p.m. when a police officer noticed his driving pattern was unusual. The driving “alerted the officer to a possible problem,” Ryan said.

The officer followed the car on Deer Valley Drive and Bonanza Drive before pulling Marolt over on the 2100 block of Monitor Drive. Marolt was alone in the vehicle.

Ryan declined to discuss what led the officer to make the arrest, and the captain did not discuss whether a sobriety test was administered at the scene. Marolt cooperated with the officer during the arrest, Ryan said.

Police officers typically conduct a basic sobriety test when they pull someone over who is suspected of drunken driving.

The Summit County Jail said a man named Gordon Strahen posted the $1,300 bail to free Marolt after the arrest. It is possible that a jail worker misspelled the name of Park City attorney Gordon Strachan when it was entered. Strachan has represented the USSA for years. The Park Record was unable to contact Strachan.

Third District Court records show the Police Department wrote Marolt a speeding ticket on Nov. 25, 1997, charging that he was driving 32 mph on a street with a speed limit of 25 mph. He was fined $47, a court clerk said.

Marolt, a 1964 Winter Olympic competitor, was a decorated ski racer in the 1960s before spending a career in college athletics and with the U.S. Ski Team. He has helmed the Park City-based USSA since 1996.

Under his leadership, U.S. skiers and snowboarders have enjoyed some of their greatest competition successes in the Winter Olympics and on the World Cup circuit. The organization, meanwhile, has expanded into a state-of-the-art Quinn’s Junction facility known as the Center of Excellence.