The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the second time, swimmer Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace and track and field athletes Demetrius Pinder, Ramon Miller and Shaunae Miller will act as BTC Star Athletes. This time, however, the quartet are signed up for the next four years which will take them into the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

After the 2012 Olympic Games in London, BTC signed the Golden Knights - Pinder, Miller, Michel Mathieu and Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown - in addition to Vanderpool-Wallace and sprinter Anthonique Strachan on a one-year deal. Shortly afterwards, BTC added Shaunae Miller.

“We believe this will give them an opportunity to be exposed a lot more to the Bahamian public as they prepare of course for the next Olympics,” said Jerome Sawyer, the manager of public relations for BTC, yesterday.

“What you will see them do over the next four years will be them becoming our brand ambassadors. They will be featured in our advertising campaigns in print and on television. They will also be appearing at some of our events and will be spokespersons for some our products, particularly as we prepare for the competition. That is why we wanted to get the well-known Bahamians as a part of our BTC brand.”

Yesterday morning Ramon Miller, Pinder and Vanderpool-Wallace went through the first phase of the deal as they did posed for photographs, holding and using the BTC products in their advertising campaigns. They were also presented with new Samsung Galaxy S5 phones. Shanuae Miller was not present.

Over the four years, the quartet will also attend a number of charity events and visit the Family Islands on promotional trips.

“What they bring to us is invaluable for many instances,” Sawyer said. “If you look at companies globally, they use athletes and people of prominence, who are famous. Take (Jamaican sprinter) Usain Bolt, who is being used internationally. What we are hoping to do is to promote Bahamians in that light because our athletes achieve a lot.

“They receive medals, there is a parade and then they are done. What we want to do is to keep their images and keep who they are prominent in the eyes and the minds of the Bahamian people. From our end, we want to make sure that our products are associated with people who are successful, people who are role models.

“That’s very important for us because we want people to see these athletes who have achieved something in life.”

In the past, the focus of the BTC sponsorship was on track and field athletes, but Sawyer said they are delighted to be able to re-sign Vanderpool-Wallace as she continues the recent progress and success in swimming.

“We want them to continue to win and to bring medals and continue to do well, but we want them to continue to be positive role models in the community,” he stated. “We want young men and women to look up to them as people who they aspire to be like and to achieve what they have achieved.”

Last Christmas, Sawyer said they took Ramon Miller to the Cat Island children’s Christmas party. The surprise on the faces of the children as they got to spend the day with an Olympian and to take pictures with him was unfortgettable because it gives them the hope that one day they too can follow in his footsteps.

The three Olympians were delighted to be afforded another opportunity to serve as a BTC Star Athlete.

Fresh from her succes in winning the Bahamas’ first medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, Vanderpool-Wallace said she was excited to be resigned by BTC.

“I was in shocked because obviously swimming has never gotten this kind of a deal,” she said. “So I was very excited that they signed me and that I get to be here with Ramon and Demetrius. It’s just awesome.”

As the first sports person outside track and field to get such an endorsement, Vanderpool-Wallace said this will help her to pave the way for those swimmers to follow her.

“To know that this is out there and they can strive to achieve it makes me most excited,” she said. “To me, a BTC Athlete is someone that is willing to work really hard to get where they have gotten because we’re not handed anything that we don’t deserve. Just making sure that everybody realises that we are working hard to represent the brand as best as we can and not doing silly things that could get us in trouble.”

Pinder said the deal is exactly what he needed. “It’s always a blessing to have anybody behind you, but to have a company like BTC is a big privilege and an honour,” said Pinder, the 400m finalist in London and who ran the second leg for the metric mile relay team that upset the United States. “They picked us up right after the Olympics and helped us out with a lot of stuff that was going on, especially training.

“For someone to get sponsored by a company like BTC, they were there for us and I can’t thank them enough for what they have done for us so far. Not having a full-time job, we have our sponsors, but BTC being one of them has helped us out a lot.”

The 25-year-old from Grand Bahama who is now training in Bradenton, Florida, said the sponsorship came with many other perks and so it was a blessing for him when he got picked up for the second time.

Miller, the 27-year-old who anchored the relay team to the gold, said the second time around is always better than the first.

“BTC saw something in me and they chose me to be with them for the next four years,” he said. “This opportunity doesn’t come by often. So you have to take it and run with it and make sure that you perform and do whatever is necessary in the contract.”

Having had the pleasure of the trip to Cat Island, Miller said he was just as thrilled as the children when they met him in person.

“They saw that I was just like them. I was one of them,” he said, indicating that he would like to go to as many islands as he can in the future. “Everybody thinks that I’m a big giant. They thought I was a little bigger than what I am on TV.”