IOC TOP sponsor Bridgestone has selected a group of five Team USA hopefuls for the '18 PyeongChang Games to anchor its marketing campaign. The athletes are figure skaters Ashley Wagner and Nathan Chen, bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and Paralympic snowboarders Amy Purdy and Evan Strong. Terms were not disclosed, but the five athletes will appear in a wide range of activations in the run-up to and during the Games. Lagardere Sports handled the athlete recruitment and signing process for Bridgestone. Taylor, Purdy and Strong are all represented by Chicago Sports & Entertainment Partners. Chen is represented by Yuki Saegusa at IMG, while Wagner is represented by Lowell Taub at CAA Sports. Bridgestone Americas President & CEO Gordon Knapp in a statement said the five athletes are “incredible people with stories of passion, determination and ingenuity.” CSEP Partner Patrick Quinn said he saw encouraging signs about how the still-new Olympics sponsor handles athletes after their first engagement at the Indianapolis 500 in May. “They seem to take a sincere interest in Amy, her prosthetic and making it better,” Quinn said. “They asked if there was any way their science and technology teams can help. And I don’t really know how that sells tires for them, so that’s a really interesting observation about their commitment to athletes.”
