nobimbo
Fri, Aug-13-04, 05:32
Posted on Thu, Aug. 12, 2004
Atkins Deal Helps U.S. Set Sail for Gold
BERNIE WILSON
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece - Lower those carbs and hoist the mainsail. Team Atkins is heading out into the wind and chop of the Saronic Gulf.
Skipper Carol Cronin of Jamestown, R.I., and her crew, Liz Filter of Stevensville, Md., and Nancy Haberland of Annapolis, Md., will make their Olympic debuts Saturday in the Yngling, a keelboat that's also making its first Summer Games appearance.
Cronin and crew might not be here if Filter hadn't struck a tasty sponsorship deal with Atkins, one of the companies behind the low-carb diet craze.
Launching an Olympic campaign takes some serious cash, as Cronin and Filter quickly discovered after deciding 3 1/2 years ago to try and qualify for Athens with the U.S. women's sailing team.
There's a boat to buy, and a van to pull it. A coach to pay. Sails to replace. There are a lot of regattas in Europe, and since the Yngling (pronounced ING-ling) is a three-person boat, travel costs are high. All this while the sailors have to put their real jobs on hold.
Annual budget: $120,000.
Filter, who has 13 years of experience in medical sales, went looking for sponsorships and negotiated a $244,000 deal with Atkins.
"We're not getting paid. That's two years of expenses for us. That's all it is," Cronin said. "Obviously it's still very helpful because otherwise I'd be figuring out how to get my house back from the bank."
Filter's fundraising success debunked a major myth within the sailing community, that sponsorships are nearly impossible to find. She even surprised her skipper.
"She worked very, very hard," Cronin said. "I thought, frankly, that she was crazy when she approached them. But it's worked out really well."
Filter kept hearing that she'd have no chance of getting a major sponsor.
"We were doing the little dog-and-pony shows with cocktail parties with friends and family, and submitting for grants at the local sailing foundations, but we just needed the really big hit to take away that worry," Filter said.
So she sent proposals to about 200 companies, all of which make various household products.
"I didn't want to have a sponsor that I didn't believe in," said Filter, who dropped several pounds on the Atkins diet after having two children, now ages 6 and 4.
She heard back from about 50 companies. Some offered free socks, shirts or watches, but those don't pay the freight. She pared her list to a handful of serious prospects and closed the deal with Atkins.
Team Atkins, as it became known, was then able to focus on training, not raising cash. It prevailed at the winner-take-all U.S. trials in February by beating a fleet that included two highly ranked skippers. They finished third at the world championships in Spain and are ranked No. 5 in the world.
Cronin and her crew got an additional $75,000 from U.S. Sailing and the USOC after winning the trials.
While their sponsorship deal is unmatched among American sailors, it probably does no more than equal the funding that some European sailors receive from their national governing bodies. Great Britain's crew, for example, receives lottery money and has one of the strongest teams in Greece.
By comparison, American Paul Cayard is spending more than $100,000 of his own money on his Star campaign. He can afford it, having made a nice living in the America's Cup and on other professional sailing circuits.
Like Filter, Cronin also swears by the Atkins diet. But in a twist, they've actually had to add weight recently.
The Yngling has a 451-pound weight limit, which crews want to be as close to as possible. When Haberland replaced Bridget Hallawell six months before the trials, there was a net loss of 25 pounds, which the whole crew has had to make up.
"We've gained most of it back," Cronin said. "I'm ready to be done with that. It's nice to know it works in both directions."
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/colleges/mercer/9383534.htm
Atkins Deal Helps U.S. Set Sail for Gold
BERNIE WILSON
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece - Lower those carbs and hoist the mainsail. Team Atkins is heading out into the wind and chop of the Saronic Gulf.
Skipper Carol Cronin of Jamestown, R.I., and her crew, Liz Filter of Stevensville, Md., and Nancy Haberland of Annapolis, Md., will make their Olympic debuts Saturday in the Yngling, a keelboat that's also making its first Summer Games appearance.
Cronin and crew might not be here if Filter hadn't struck a tasty sponsorship deal with Atkins, one of the companies behind the low-carb diet craze.
Launching an Olympic campaign takes some serious cash, as Cronin and Filter quickly discovered after deciding 3 1/2 years ago to try and qualify for Athens with the U.S. women's sailing team.
There's a boat to buy, and a van to pull it. A coach to pay. Sails to replace. There are a lot of regattas in Europe, and since the Yngling (pronounced ING-ling) is a three-person boat, travel costs are high. All this while the sailors have to put their real jobs on hold.
Annual budget: $120,000.
Filter, who has 13 years of experience in medical sales, went looking for sponsorships and negotiated a $244,000 deal with Atkins.
"We're not getting paid. That's two years of expenses for us. That's all it is," Cronin said. "Obviously it's still very helpful because otherwise I'd be figuring out how to get my house back from the bank."
Filter's fundraising success debunked a major myth within the sailing community, that sponsorships are nearly impossible to find. She even surprised her skipper.
"She worked very, very hard," Cronin said. "I thought, frankly, that she was crazy when she approached them. But it's worked out really well."
Filter kept hearing that she'd have no chance of getting a major sponsor.
"We were doing the little dog-and-pony shows with cocktail parties with friends and family, and submitting for grants at the local sailing foundations, but we just needed the really big hit to take away that worry," Filter said.
So she sent proposals to about 200 companies, all of which make various household products.
"I didn't want to have a sponsor that I didn't believe in," said Filter, who dropped several pounds on the Atkins diet after having two children, now ages 6 and 4.
She heard back from about 50 companies. Some offered free socks, shirts or watches, but those don't pay the freight. She pared her list to a handful of serious prospects and closed the deal with Atkins.
Team Atkins, as it became known, was then able to focus on training, not raising cash. It prevailed at the winner-take-all U.S. trials in February by beating a fleet that included two highly ranked skippers. They finished third at the world championships in Spain and are ranked No. 5 in the world.
Cronin and her crew got an additional $75,000 from U.S. Sailing and the USOC after winning the trials.
While their sponsorship deal is unmatched among American sailors, it probably does no more than equal the funding that some European sailors receive from their national governing bodies. Great Britain's crew, for example, receives lottery money and has one of the strongest teams in Greece.
By comparison, American Paul Cayard is spending more than $100,000 of his own money on his Star campaign. He can afford it, having made a nice living in the America's Cup and on other professional sailing circuits.
Like Filter, Cronin also swears by the Atkins diet. But in a twist, they've actually had to add weight recently.
The Yngling has a 451-pound weight limit, which crews want to be as close to as possible. When Haberland replaced Bridget Hallawell six months before the trials, there was a net loss of 25 pounds, which the whole crew has had to make up.
"We've gained most of it back," Cronin said. "I'm ready to be done with that. It's nice to know it works in both directions."
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/colleges/mercer/9383534.htm