The untold story of Olympic sponsorship

Underneath the optimistic portrayal of sponsorship in the media lies the true effect that sponsorship plays on Olympic athletes.


Some athletes we have spoken to have said they have felt "as if they (their sponsor Adidas) didn't care) so we have to ask - does the Olympic sponsorship system really care for its athletes?

Launch of the team GB kit: Photo from Adidas press

Big sponsors and brands are popping up everywhere in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic games and people are becoming more familiarised with big named athletes, but what about the athletes you don't hear about?




Globally athletes are being used to push mass consumerism, with sports brand giant Adidas being quoted in the Telegraph and on the Economic Times websites as saying:

"If they don't win, then you've had some value out of them in the run-up"

During our investigation we have uncovered and discussed several athletes who lack sponsorship and their personal experiences. From this research and our own exclusive interview we have been able to break down the PR image pushed forward by sponsors and see the untold story.

In our interview we bought you the exclusive story of our anonymous source whose athletic career and personal life was destroyed by their sponsor. 

Our contact describes their tragic ordeal with their sponsor Adidas. 

When Adidas took this athletes accommodation, training equipment and money they were left bankrupt and desperate and haven't been able to return to athletics since.

We have repeatedly attempted to contact Adidas regarding our investigation but we have yet to receive a response.

Are they avoiding our questions or just avoiding the issue completely? Their delay on responding to our questioning is definitely something to be noted. In our previous investigation Adidas responded to another exclusive interview stating:

 “...our company and how we respect our clients. Our sponsorship deals are freely available if the public request, like most companies we have an exclusivity term within our contract. However we do not feel this deters clients from their role within the sporting field they represent, we are merely assisting and aiding their profile.”

Our investigation has not only highlighted this exclusive case but several other cases such as James Ellington and Warington who although successful Olympians have struggled to get sponsored and be able to compete in the games.

In the run up to the 2012 games approximately 1,800 athletes were dropped by the WCPP according to Brian Brady of the Independent. Statistically funding is going up but so is the amount of athletes being neglected.

Is this neglect down to just sponsors or the entire Olympic sponsorship system?

Breaking down official documentation provided by LOCOG and the IOC it has become increasingly clear that the systems provides limited restrictions to athletes with high gain rewards to the companies behind the scenes. 

Any rise in popularity, athletic achievement or notoriety ultimately benefits the system foremost. Our recent post exploring the legal side of sponsorship discusses the advertising compliance law and its effect on athletes. 

The cases we have investigated experience problems from a variety of different areas of sponsorships and sponsors which highlights the developing flaws in the system.

Athletes are starting to slip through the cracks of Olympic sponsorship leaving them vulnerable and neglected. Unfortunately these athletes are becoming another set of statistics and more and more cases continue to grow.

Olympic diver facing end of his career

One Olympic diver is facing potentially dropping out of full time training this year due to a lack of funding and budget reforms within his discipline.

Olympic diving medalist Waterfield has been faced with an ultimatum, to place in this years London 2012 or get a full time job and train in his own spare time.

He recently got dropped from his role as an athlete monitor for youth teams, as well as having his lottery funding reduced since undergoing shoulder surgery after the Beijing Olympics in 2008. With London 2012 just a matter of weeks away he could not risk failure by getting a job now and miss out on vital training.

So to see him through, his wife has taken up a second job as a carer in the evenings, as well as working in the NHS during the day. All this is so they can keep up with mortgage costs as well as providing for their two children, both under ten.

This poses the question then, why do some athletes in this years Olympics have overwhelming funding and support, whilst others are seemingly struggling to survive?

At the moment many channels are cashing in on the London 2012 games, they are using the faces of well known British athletes to help endorse their products with a return of publicity and money for those athletes. Some adverts on screens at the moment include the likes of Jessica Ennis, Usain Bolt and Waterfield's diving team mate, Tom Daley. They are all barely out of the papers and social media sites. So how come they are securing such lucrative investments and not mature professionals such as Waterfield....

Well the one thing that clearly stands out is age, Daley and Ennis are both young, fresh faced, attractive athletes. Whereas Waterfield is 30 and in the sporting world, basically set for retirement.

In a world where every year counts, it appears to be that companies lose interest in older sportsmen after a certain time. Unless you cashed in on your youth and talent and made a household name for yourself, once you get too old you will sadly go on the pile of other forgotten athletes....

Although, it is rather sad that we live in a world where no one can support our British Olympic hopefuls unless 'Olay' or 'Coca-cola' tell us to. It would be nice for someone in the media to give this guy a chance to show us he is still the amazing athlete who has won so many medals for this country.

Olympic athletes face social media restrictions

Social Media Overlap, a photo by Intersection Consulting on Flickr.
 

Olympics athletes are being restricted from social media during the Olympics but is this just another demand as a sponsored athlete?

Olympic giants LOCOG have teamed up with social media site Twitter to implement social media restrictions in attempt to combat ambush marketing.


LOCOG stated that it is:


"Keen to prevent non-sponsors from using the event as a marketing opportunity at the expense of official Olympic brands." (Econsultancy)


These preventative methods appeared in light of sports brand Nike utilising hash tag campaigns and Olympic stars in a new promotional campaign.

Screen capture from Official IOC documentation (screen captured by Editor)

Digesting official IOC documentation it is clear to see that the guidelines laid out are highly regimented and aren't in place to protect the athlete but the official Olympic sponsors and the Olympic image.


In the history of Twitter and Athletes cases the monitoring implemented by the IOC has been used forcefully. In the case of Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice her postings on Twitter had detrimental consequences on her career.


As reported in Australian news website news.com.au in 2010:


"Stephanie Rice has been dumped by sponsor Jaguar Australia for blurting the "other" f-bomb - the incendiary gay slur - on Twitter" (featured news story)


This resulted in this athlete losing her sponsors and has not competed on an Olympic level since.


These restrictions have been debated furiously online on StarDestoyer.net, in this specific discussion members discuss Olympians being banned from blogging and this information is received negatively with members quoting


"So how does this affect an athlete who may have a personal contract to report or write about what they personally see and do at the Olympics?"


What it comes down to is the power of major Olympic companies, sponsors and social media. Olympic athletes have to conform to strict guidelines just to be able to compete, even though these guidelines are completely beneficial to the individuals behind the games. 


As restrictions get tighter and more and more online communities such as StarDestroyer are engaging with these rules the Olympic image is being tainted.

"I almost felt as if they didn't notice or care"

An exclusive interview shows the hidden stories of a sponsorship with Adidas.

Being an athlete isn't easy, its long days working on your discipline, grueling hours of training to remain at your peak, constant drugs testing and striking that balance between diet and lifestyle. So to many, securing a lucrative sponsorship deal takes a massive weight off your shoulders, enabling you to focus on your one goal of winning. 

But what happens when that deal goes sour? I met up with someone whose life has been turned around by these tying sponsorship contracts. They have shared with me their first hand experience of what it is actually like when that multinational corporation turns against you. And now, they are ready to tell the rest of the world just how easily these companies can make you or break you. 

The meeting began quite awkwardly, it is obvious that this subject is one that she doesnt like to talk about much. She admitted to myself that it's a subject she says away from, I get a feeling that this interview will help her get over her fears and there could be a lot hidden which I didn't previously realise. 

To many of you would empathise, knowing that if someone has been a victim of a past event they may not want to relive it, like many, my source is scared of the repercussions that talking to me may have on her life now. "it upsets me, that was my past and if things went well it would of also been my present and future. Sadly I messed that up, nothing can be changed now, I have learnt the extremely hard way."

Her saying this has left me wanting to know, what exactly happened with her sponsorship deal. She was with a high profile company and as we get talking over a coffee, which seems to have relaxed her a bit, I begin to find out what exactly happened with her sponsor. 

She was touted at a young age, having been a keen runner she progressed early on into regional and district competitions. However her true potential was during national qualifiers in which she cleared each round with ease and managed to place in the finals of her race. "At the end of my race some people came up to me and said they would love the opportunity to sponsor me to train and become professional." Naturally, like any athlete she spoke to her family and running coach and accepted the deal, "it was something I loved to do, the thought of getting paid for it was just too good to turn down."

I began to wonder how this could all go wrong for her, she was set up with a five year contract, brand new sports kit to wear when training and competing, as well as free accommodation and a wage of £2,500 to just run once in a while.  

"When things are going great, you forget you are still tied to a contract." 

This one sentence said a thousand words. My source had disobeyed the rules set out in a binding contract by her sponsor. Now all I was interested in, is what she did to break them.

She was selected by her national placings to go forward and compete at a European qualifier. She was with other British runners who she had got to know and befirend over many years competing with them, some of the runners had sponsors like my source did, however some were still desperately looking for one, "having a sponsor just adds to that sense of security for you." 

However is having a sponsor all that great? My source reveals how friends she knew got to wear whatever kit they liked at the time and what they thought best enhanced their performance. Having a sponsor could potentially prevent you from being your best, if you se tied to their products it may not be as good as other makes are.

One of her friends was living that free sponsor-less life we are talking about, she was very close to our source and they had known each other through running for many years. At this one race she was wearing a competitors trainers, "I really liked them on her, we are the same shoe size so asked if she would mind me trying them on." After doing a few warm up laps in them it was obvious that these trainers were more comfortable on her and she felt she would be better performing in these rather than her own branded ones. Her friend had a second pair of the trainers on her so let her wear those ones to race in, even though her contract stated she should wear only her brand at competitions. I was up against European champions so didn't think I was going to win or even place so didn't see the problem. "I will be out next round so who cares" I thought to myself. 

However, she was actually running a a better pace than usual and kept getting through to the next rounds. "I was elated I didn't even notice what I was wearing I just couldn't believe I kept winning!" When she made it into the final 12 she was too focused on winning that she didn't want to ruin her chances by changing back to her proper running trainers. She didn't win that competition, but she did place in the top three, which meant she had to stand on the winners podium with a case of 'the wrong trainers'. Her picture got into a few newspapers, she looked stunning with a toned body and her sponsors branding all over her, it all would of been perfect if it wasn't for the bright red running trainers with a competitors branding on her feet rather than her paid branding. 

When the pictures went to press the next morning, her feeling of elation at placing so highly in this competition was gone. Sponsorship all about that winning race, by sponsoring someone you are backing a winner. When that athlete crosses the line they are meant to encompass a winner, wearing the clothes of a winner, so when consumers see the images they see how you should dress to be the best in this discipline. Her friend had also won in her races, the papers cashed in on both of the girls wearing the same shoes, it was basically free advertising to the other brand.

It was inevitable that she would soon be contacted by her company. They took a few days to approach her, "maybe I was such a good deal for them that they didn't care?" But in fact that was not the case. They called her up and asked her to come to their offices the next morning at 10am. She had no idea what she was about to expect, "in hindsight, I wish I bought a lawyer in with me or something."

She went into a conference room with ten suited and booted people all sat round a big table clearly waiting for her, using her given feminine charm she wore a tight blue office style dress and push up bra, if she didn't have a lawyer she may as well use what she had got. Although a few of the men stared, clearly impressed at her effort, she knew once the top dog begin to speak that those efforts were in vain.

They informed my source that she had violated her terms of agreement by advertising a competitors brand. They had various sales figures of how the competitors running shoes had increased in sales by a certain percentage within the period of time since the race and how she was responsible for that figure. They highlighted profit areas on products she was endorsing which were low. Her contract was ended with immediate effect and sadly she was then sued for breaking the clearly outlined clauses on her contract. On top of this she was also ordered to pay the company back for losses, she lost her flat which they had provided her for and provide back rent for the time in which she was living there. "All I could keep were my running clothes that had been used, all other stuff had to be returned."

In total she ended up having to find over £170,000 for them. Which she clearly did not have available "and they knew that". She had to move back to her home town with her parents and ended up getting a job at a supermarket because she had no qualifications. Sadly, after many months of struggling to pay back what she owed she ended up with no choice but to declare herself bankrupt. "I only managed to pay them about £15,000 they dropped the case and just basically left me to be penniless."

She began to feel lost and yearning for her old life of living in high class London and running for her wage. She fell into a state of depression, spent days at a time in bed, just watching the world go by whilst she stayed still. However, that running passion in her finally stirred again ad she knew she should get back up on her feet, "I went to college as a mature student and got some qualifications". She became a carer and begin to earn a decent wage in a job she enjoyed. After a few months she then began running again, "at first just as exercise and then I joined a local running club." It was hear that her life finally changed for the good, as she met a guy who was part of the running club. They began dating and quickly knew it was meant to be so moved in together. She didn't keep her past from him though, he knew all about her bankruptcy and issues with the company. "I don't have long left on it now and once that goes, that will be the end of my old life and my new one can now finally begin."

What I find touching about this is how through all her hardship she has still remained strong, even at telling me this story, clearly it upset her but she thought about the good things which have come out from it. She will never be happy at how things went wrong for her, but at least she has learnt to accept them.

"I see people in the Olympics now and feel that could of been me, but my silver lining is my fiancé, if things hadn't of messed up I would never of met him, in a way I am better for it. I miss my running but I do it now for enjoyment rather than making a living. Now a days I am a carer, I love my job, my home and my fiancé.... People don't know about my past because that felt like a different me, I have changed now and I believe it is for the better..."

I would like to thank my source for agreeing to tell her story at how being sponsored by such a multi-national company can alter your life in so many ways. For some these deals are brilliant and a chance at a future in a sport they love, but you must always remember those who have had to suffer a lifetime for one small mistake. These companies are not forgiving, they may forget you like they have with our source, but they are ultimately the only winners within sport.