A longtime sports photographer and several well-known action sports athletes were expected to announce a new association for athletes — and fans — Saturday, to address issues like health insurance, retirement and travel costs that weigh heavily on action sports athletes.
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| Jonny Moseley is working to get the IASA off the ground. |
The International Action Sports Alliance, based in Golden, Colo., was to be launched during the Winter X Games, with Olympic gold-medalist skier Jonny Moseley and snowboarder Barrett Christy, a multiple X Games medalist, as top spokespersons.
The group is a nonprofit association and hopes to have 100,000 people signed up by the end of this year — the aim being to have enough members to provide each of them, including athletes, reasonable rates for health and disability insurance, along with other professional services. It estimates there are 30,000 professional extreme sports athletes worldwide.
Co-founder Rob Gracie, a longtime action sports photographer, said the group has meetings set this week with sports agents at Octagon and IMG, and that it already has had "positive discussions" with the fledgling Pro Riders Organization, a separate group dedicated to competition standards and other issues facing extreme sports.
Gracie said the group is open to fans as well as athletes — in order to reach the membership levels necessary to be able to offer group health insurance. Membership for professionals is $120 a year, for amateurs and fans, $59.95. Currently the group has arranged a dental-care discount, a nurse hotline and discounts for restaurants, hotels and rental cars.
Gracie said that in the past health insurance was a challenge for even top athletes, who had to negotiate with sponsors for inclusion in their group plans. The difficulty remains for all but the top people, he said.
The group is funded through loans from private individuals, Gracie said, and has 10 employees. Marketing will be done via word of mouth and the group's Web site, actionsportsathletes.com. "We can't afford to be sinking a lot of money into marketing," Gracie said.
