British athletes preparing for London 2012 are to sell a piece of their public image to fund their Olympic dream, according to UK newspaper, The Times.
The paper reports that around 50 sportsmen and sportswomen have joined the online campaign Be Number 1, which aims to tap into the goodwill that exists towards Olympic athletes after their success in Beijing. The scheme works by dividing an image of an athlete into 999 pixels and selling each off for £20, £50, £100 or £1,000 a year. In return, the sponsor gets a dedicated page to upload images, videos, news and messages. This will be linked to wider web communities such as Facebook. Eighty per cent of all revenues generated by the site will go directly to the athlete.
The site’s creators, which include the sailors Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton and their agent, Hugo Ambrose, told the paper that they hope that the website will allow the British public to feel more directly involved in the London Games.
“This will have an impact on someone’s success rather than putting money into infrastructure. It’s fun and accessible,” said Webb who won two gold medals in Athens and Beijing as one third of the female Yngling crew. “The perception is that funded athletes make a good living. The reality is different. Most are still doing it for the love of the sport,” she said.
The website, benumber1.co.uk, was designed for the emerging athlete, just below Olympic level and on the verge of qualification for lottery cash. But a multimillion-pound funding gap at elite level means that it is not just unknowns struggling to pay the bills. Those who have signed up include Tom Daley, the 14-year-old diver; David Davies, a swimmer who won a silver medal in Athens; Paul Goodison, a gold medal-winning sailor in Beijing; and Beth Tweddle, Britain’s first gymnastics world champion.
Mr Ambrose told the paper that he hopes to sign up 300 athletes across all summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic sports. He said that he does not expect conflicts of interest with existing corporate sponsors or the Government. Ministers are trying to launch a similar scheme to allow British businesses to sponsor rising stars before London 2012 in an effort to fill a £79 million hole in the elite sports programme.
