In 2015, Dick’s Sporting Goods signed a sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee that included sporting goods and equipment donations to the U.S. Olympic Training Centers and sponsorships of Team USA hopefuls. But one of the most unique aspects of the partnership is the Contenders program, which enables U.S. Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to work in Dick’s locations.

The athletes earn competitive pay and flexible hours to help them pursue their Olympic and Paralympic dreams.

In 2016, more than 15 percent of athletes enrolled in the company’s program went on to represent Team USA at the Olympic or Paralympic Games in Rio. Those 42 athletes brought home a total of 23 Olympic and Paralympic medals (11 gold, eight silver and four bronze).

In 2018, 12 participants in the company’s Contenders program as of late January had qualified to represent Team USA in the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. They include Alex Rigsby, goalie for Team USA Women’s Hockey; John Shuster, the 2006 Olympic Bronze medalist in curling; Jessika Jenson, who finished in 13th place finish in the slopestyle event in Sochi and Carlijn Schoutens, a short-track speedskater making his first Olympics.

SGB reached out to Ryan Eckel, VP of Brand at Dick’s Sporting Goods, to discuss the inspiration behind the Contenders program.

SGB: Can you tell us how the Contenders program came about?

RE: As a company, we are obsessed with the journeys of athletes–the ups and downs, the struggle and the joy. And no group represents this journey quite like Olympic hopefuls. Many Americans are not aware that most Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls don’t receive big sponsorship deals, nor do they receive any federal funding while they chase their dreams, and for most of these athletes, their odds of representing Team USA are very low.  But they are driven by passion, a love of sport and a desire to continuously improve themselves.  We admire these athletes deeply and wanted to create a program that would make a meaningful difference in their ability to perform at their absolute best.  Our Team USA partnership focuses on our in-store employment program offering flexible work schedules and competitive wages to Team USA hopefuls to help them pursue their Olympic and Paralympic dreams. In total, the program has supported more than 250 athletes on their quest to become part of Team USA.

SGB: Can you share any of the experiences or challenges faced by those who you’ve helped?

RE: In her early 20s, U.S. women’s ice hockey goalie Alex Rigsby worked at a management consultant firm, but she soon realized that trying to work remotely and part-time at the firm was too challenging while she balanced hockey training. She started working part-time as a Dick’s Store Associate as part of the Contenders program in the summer of 2017 in the Madison, Wisconsin store, which provided her with a flexible schedule while she trained to make Team USA.

Paralympic snowboard athlete Brittany Coury struggled to pay for the latest and most innovative prosthetics that are necessary to reach the highest level in her sport. Her part-time job as a medical assistant and EMT while she was balancing training and nursing school wasn’t cutting it, so she joined the Contenders program and added a part-time job as a Dick’s Store Associate in Farmington, New Mexico to her very full plate, which helped her to pay for her prosthetics.

At the 2018 Games, 2006 Olympic Bronze medalist John Shuster is competing in his fourth Olympic Winter Games for Team USA as the skip of his curling team. John has trained relentlessly while working at Dick’s as a Store Associate in the Team Sports department since 2015, which he credits as helping him to afford training expenses, in addition to supporting his family of four and paying for childcare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npHDQ8tWmFk&feature=youtu.be

SGB: Beyond supporting your core values, how does Dick’s benefit?

RE: Olympic athletes are true experts in their individual sport(s) and their expertise and advice on sporting equipment is invaluable and builds trust with our customer’s in store. We see this as the real beauty of the Contenders program–we’re able to support Team USA hopefuls on their Olympic and Paralympic journeys, but they’re able to provide our customers with such valuable knowledge and expertise. It’s pretty cool to think that you can walk into a Dick’s Sporting Goods store and potentially be helped by someone who is training to be part of Team USA or has already competed in an Olympic or Paralympic games.

SGB: Do in-store shoppers know their Olympic hopefuls?

RE: Yes, the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls are noticed by shoppers. Athletes in the Contenders program wear a special lanyard that identifies them as a Team USA hopeful. The Contenders also have special gear with the program logo on it that helps them stand out in the store as well. We’ve always encouraged these athletes to share their stories and experiences with our customers, just like we encourage all of our store associates to. The passion and expertise all of our associates bring to our stores is one of our company’s primary differentiates.

SGB: How has Dick’s gotten the word out about the Contenders program?

RE: We have launched a major digital campaign telling the stories of some of our Contenders–their journeys, their struggels, their successes. These pieces are on both the program’s website–dicks.com/TheContenders–and on our company’s social platforms. Just last month we also launched a social campaign with top-tier influencers including Nastia Liukin, Scott Hamilton and Kerri Walsh Jennings  to promote a $100,000 donation that we made to Team USA in an effort to further support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

SGB: Do the program and overall sponsorship have a presence at the Pyeongchang games?

RE: We just launched our United in Sport campaign, which came to life in the form of a commercial that debuted on NBC on February 10 and has continued to air during the coverage of the Olympic Winter Games. The campaign is the latest Olympic commercial spot to launch since Gold in Us, which launched during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, telling the story of the grit shown by seven DSG Contenders as they fought to dig out the gold that is naturally found in the human body.

The United in Sport (:60 spot) runs parallel to the Contenders Program and the message of this campaign focuses around one of our core company beliefs that sports make people better and is one of the great uniters. During a time when division is prevalent, the company wants to use the unifying power of Team USA competing at the Olympic Winter Games to remind us all of the power sport has to discover the best in ourselves. The creativity expands to touch on the power sport has to bring us together as one community, one country and one world, and sport has always been one of the great uniters. This is best exemplified during the 17 days of the Olympic Games, when the world puts their differences aside and comes together to play games.

Photos/videos courtesy of Dick’s Sporting Goods