Olympian Hamish Carter and his wife are helping young athletes find corporate backers, reports Suzanne McFadden.
Penelope Marshall's passage to India has been fraught with battles.
There were, of course, times to be broken to qualify for three swimming events - the 200m freestyle and two relays - at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. And there was her remarkable recovery from lifesaving brain surgery after
being hit by a car 18 months ago.
More oddly, there has been her triumph in the contest for funding - a three-way struggle with rival up-and-comers.
On the brink of greatness, 21-year-old Marshall does not yet qualify for a decent handout from the government to support her training, travelling and competing fulltime. And so she turned to SportConnect, a funding venture set up by Marisa Carter and her husband, Olympic triathlon champion Hamish.
In a nutshell, SportConnect helps to partner promising young athletes with corporate "supporters", using Sky TV as the go-between. The corporates buy an advertising package with Sky, which in turn donates a percentage of the fee to the athlete.
Marshall now has financial support from BNZ, but that came only after she'd pipped two other athletes for the purse.
Bruce Lake, BNZ's national sponsorship manager, says the bank chose three athletes from the SportConnect stable, and put the vote to their staff to pick one.
"Penelope was the overwhelming favourite, and we're simply thrilled to be able to support her on her journey to the top," Lake says. "She is a remarkable athlete and we will be cheering for her at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and beyond."
Marshall will receive $20,000 a year for two years through the partnership. In return, she may be asked to speak to BNZ staff, or send them emails or tweets on her progress. Some companies will simply want their chosen athlete to be a role model by doing what they do best.
"They can use the athlete as much or as little as they want," says Marisa Carter.
"We encourage them to let the relationship evolve over the two years, to see their potential. Success is the company joining up the athlete in a traditional sponsorship deal once the two years is up."
The SportConnect concept was born out of Carter's previous role at Television New Zealand, where she was a sponsorship and marketing manager during New Zealand's America's Cup heyday in 2000. The concept is based loosely on the incentive advertising arrangement TVNZ had with Team New Zealand and its Family of Five sponsors.
"It popped into my head, why couldn't you do that with individuals?" she says.
With her husband, she began pitching the idea to various television networks, and outlining why and where the next generation of Kiwi stars needed funds.
"They don't get enough from Sparc to be financially viable, and they're not well-known enough to be put on a Weet-Bix box," Hamish Carter says.
"The challenge with young athletes is not to give them too much and risk ruining them, or to not give them enough and deny them opportunities. We don't want them to think they've made it, but we don't want them to live on the bones of their bums either. We wanted this to be a unique opportunity in their career, not just cash to buy a car."
Sky TV took on the concept this year, agreeing to fund 10 athletes in the first year. Tony O'Brien, Sky TV's director of communications, says it was a "natural fit" for the network, and the timing - leading into the Commonwealth Games - was ideal.
"We're really pleased by the way the project has grown. We consider ourselves to be the home of New Zealand sport on television, with eight sports channels. We want to be able to say we can provide everything for everybody," he says.
"We are supporting something worthwhile, something that everyone loves to see - which is sport being played well. People love success. We get great viewership and at the same time we're giving something back to the community."
Generally, the supporters are companies which already advertise with Sky TV, but the SportConnect project is also attracting new advertising clients.
"They pay for the advertising package and we contribute a percentage of that towards the fund. It not only provides the athlete with funding, but it introduces them to a corporate relationship," O'Brien says.
"We are the catalyst that holds it all together."
In its debut year, SportConnect has on its books 16 athletes, recommended to the Carters by national sports bodies. Three of those athletes - freestyle swimmer Marshall, middle-distance runner Nikki Hamblin and cycling pursuiter Jaime Nielsen - are competing in New Delhi.
Winter Olympics snowboarder Mitch Brown will soon have his face splashed on Nature Valley Muesli Bars packets; top under-23 triathlete Tony Dodds is filming a DVD with exercise tips for Bunnings Warehouse staff. Another triathlete, Ryan Sissons, is now supported by Nutrigrain in his quest to emulate Carter's success.
Resene has adopted cyclist Tom Scully, and Westpac, which already has a strong relationship with the Halberg Trust, is supporting Paralympic triple gold-medallist Sophie Pascoe.
The Carters know first-hand that opening the door to a sponsor relationship is the toughest step in an athlete's career. Marisa represented New Zealand in triathlon; Hamish, who now works in HR for Lion Nathan, competed for 14 years on the World Cup circuit, spending the early years sleeping in the backs of cars across Europe.
"In the world of high-performance sport, young athletes are unseen by sponsors. It's their parents who support them, usually until they're at the top" Marisa says.
"We hear hundreds of stories, and see photos of these athletes sitting on the sidewalk outside a cafe in Paris where the Wi-Fi is free," Hamish adds.
"Or four of them packed into a little car, with their bikes, driving hundreds of miles to the next event.
"I don't believe we should shortcut all of that, though. It's what Kiwis are all about - there still has to be that hunger. But a lot of them drop out because they can't afford to carry on. Hopefully this will keep a lot of those athletes in there."
SportConnect's role goes beyond signing up the athlete and supporter, ensuring the athlete regularly engages with the company that is backing them, Carter says.
"We want to help educate people on the journey of an athlete. The company's staff will start to follow the athlete's story, and take on board a lot of their struggle. It's quite inspirational."
