One of the few U.S. Olympians of recent years to make the transition from athletic stardom to overall celebrity is switching control of her future endorsement deals from SFX Sports to Premier Management Group.
Dara Torres, a four-time Olympic swimmer, already was an established model and television personality when she made an improbable comeback at 33 to compete for the powerhouse U.S. team at the 2000 Sydney Games. She added three individual bronze and two relay gold medals to expand her career total to nine medals.
Torres, a former Wilhelmina modeling agency client, signed with Cary, N.C.-based PMG and agent Evan Morgenstein this month. Her first PMG-negotiated commitment is to the U.S. Air Force, Morgenstein said. In May, Torres will visit U.S. personnel and their families at several bases across Europe to lend her support and offer fitness tips.
Now retired from competitive swimming, Torres is one of Speedo's long-standing endorsers. Torres also appeared in numerous infomercials for the Taebo fitness system.
A growing roster of Olympians is doing deals through PMG, which recently opened an office in San Francisco.
STILL KICKING: Another crisis for the International Olympic Committee is squarely on the shoulders of tae kwon do executive Un Yong Kim of South Korea, who only six months ago seemed to regain much of the stature he lost amid the late 1990s Salt Lake City bid scandal and, later, in a failed 2001 bid to become IOC president.
Kim, 72, culminated a contentious campaign for an open IOC vice presidency last June by persuading more fellow members to vote for him than Norwegian Gerhard Heiberg. The weekly newsletter Around the Rings recently ranked Kim 11th among its annual Golden 25, a list acknowledging influence. After being publicly admonished four years earlier by his IOC peers for accepting perks from cities bidding for the 2002 Winter Games (including winner Salt Lake), Kim appeared to be back.
But, in his native Seoul, the 30-year head of the World Taekwondo Federation is mired in a widening investigation of embezzlement and other corruption charges. His home was raided by government investigators, who uncovered large sums of foreign currencies, according to the English-language Korea Times newspaper. Kim resigned his seat in the Korean National Assembly, stepped down as president of the tae kwon do federation and was informed that IOC President Jacques Rogge has asked the organization's ethics commission to review charges against Kim.
His fate has indirect bearing on former U.S. Olympic Committee President William Hybl, a Colorado Springs, Colo., executive who is a World Taekwondo Federation vice president. In an interview, Hybl said the federation's executive council meets Feb. 13, after which he will know more about procedures to replace Kim. Hybl said he has "no designs" on the federation presidency. If Hybl were to be elevated to that post, however, he potentially would have a chance to become an IOC member.
IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said that, while the organization has sought more international sports federation heads as members in recent years, the next tae kwon do federation president is not automatically offered an IOC voting seat.
The United States has three IOC members, fewer than other, smaller nations.
EARLY TRACTION: German auto components brand Continental AG occupies a new category of global soccer sponsorship as a first-time partner of FIFA and the World Cup. The 2006 World Cup in Germany had its qualifying draw last month, prompting Continental to get an extreme jump on rolling out its marketing presence for the 30-month countdown.
The multinational tire and brake systems manufacturer, which has its headquarters in Hanover, recently launched contifanworld.com, an interactive site for fans also linked to the 2006 fifaworldcup.com site.
Deutsche Telekom and Emirates Airline, the Dubai-based carrier, also are new to the FIFA global partner roster since the conclusion of the most recent World Cup in 2002.
EARLY NUMBERS: Nine candidates have anted up a $100,000 registration fee to join the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games and — according to a Toronto-based Web portal — Paris, Rio de Janeiro and London are the preliminary front-runners.
All nine, including the U.S. candidate, New York, last week sent off responses to an extensive questionnaire required by the IOC by Jan. 15. A 65-page document was sent to Lausanne, Switzerland, from Manhattan by air courier early last week. It is a first step toward the deciding IOC vote in July 2005.
GamesBids.com founder Robert Livingstone released the site's BidIndex for 2012 as the documents were in transit to the IOC. Paris rates first with an index score of 61.83, ahead of Rio (60.77), London (60.07), Istanbul (57.25) and New York (56.4). He said 100 fundamentals are built into the mathematical model used to generate the index, which correctly forecast Beijing as the winner of the 2008 race but missed the mark on 2010. Ahead of that vote last summer, the index rated Salzburg No. 1 behind eventual 2010 winner Vancouver. Salzburg was third in IOC balloting.
"We don't claim it is any real predictor," Livingstone said in an interview. "But it does show who will be strong."
New Yorkers need not fear the city's current middle-of-pack index, Livingstone said, as "only 25 percent of the data is in." He said the numbers would be adjusted after the questionnaire replies are analyzed. "We really haven't gotten into finances or venue plans."
RING TOSSES: Ahead of meetings last week in Washington with senior U.S. government officials, the Greek government announced it will conduct a pre-Games security exercise with Great Britain called "Blue Odyssey" in Athens next month. The exercise will focus on countering nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. U.S. troops are expected to participate in exercises on the ground in March. Former USOC President Hybl, a member of the IOC's Athens coordination panel, said no one disputes Greece is "a dangerous neighborhood" but he continues to have "full confidence" in the Athens security plan. "Of course, we know zealots can do things no amount of security can prevent," Hybl said. ... The USOC is hosting an international Pacific sports forum on Tuesday and Wednesday in Honolulu to exchange ideas with Olympic sports leaders from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
