With the cost of becoming a ‘tier one’ Olympic sponsor amounting to £40,000,000, many small-to-medium-sized businesses can be left feeling as though the Olympics coming to London is passing them by. To be able to generate the kind of revenues that a blue chip company spends on sponsorship alone can seem a remote possibility. 

Olympic sponsors have exclusivity to use the magic five rings logo on their products and so it is easy to associate those companies with the big event. However, it is not every day that the Olympics comes to London and as the event gets closer, it’s hard not to notice everyone around you getting excited and the overwhelming, contagious energy. It’s great to have the marketing rights to put the London 2012 logo on your merchandise but there are numerous other ways to get involved and to ride the rollercoaster of London 2012!

One way to get involved with the Olympics is to support an athlete in ways such as helping them with costs associated with training, helping them to purchase better equipment or to seek professional advice to help them on their journey.  You can then invite your athlete into your workplace which has motivational factors for staff. As a Company you will find yourself more engaged in the Olympics as a whole now that it seems far more tangible to you and your business.  This is not to mention the fantastic benefits you can both glean from the partnership in the media: as an athlete I am frequently asked about my ‘team’ including which companies assist me. 

The Olympic Games will generate a huge injection of money into the economy. Athlete and visitor accommodation and associated hospitality services, plus the new infrastructure and superstructure required all generate knock-on work and revenue for manufacturers and suppliers.  In turn these firms require new support services such as software to operate efficiently and effectively.

The Olympic Games is the greatest sporting arena of all time. It’s about finding a Champion among Champions. But it’s also about participation, which is why so many countries from the globe compete. However there would be no Olympic games without the SMEs that allow the games to happen. They are the gel between the athlete walking into the arena and the blue chip sponsors financing grand scale projects. The Games are for everyone and they involve everyone.

William Sharman is Britain’s top 110mh Hurdler, currently preparing for the Olympic Games. He maintains a keen perspective on key issues relating to business. He has a BA in Economics from Leicester University and an MSc in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University.

Good morning bloggers.

I’m sending this from London where I have come to see my nutritionist and have some blood tests taken. Pretty exciting stuff because we will set up a nutrition plan that is unique for me. However I’ve been fasting since last night and I was so hungry during the night I found it difficult to sleep deeply.

Training is going well. I’m hitting the strength stuff very hard at the moment and I’m fully capable now that my wrist is fully mended. Big gains are occurring already and I am eight weeks into my programme.
January will consist of a month of warm weather training which I am looking forward to. The aim is not to have an indoor season because the time of year that I will finish rehab will be too close to competitions indoors.

However, my goal is the Olympics! If February comes around and I feel ready to have some indoor competitions I will do.

One step at a time and right now the focus is on getting strong.

My trip to the world championships was turned out to be a relative success.

I arrived in Ulsan at 2300 hours local time, the team bus departed from Loughborough at noon the day before. That’s a lot of travelling. As I arrived at the hotel and was given my room key, I had no idea who I would be sharing a room with. Even though I often like to have my own room, it’s also nice to have a new roommate on these occasions to keep your mind off the big championships. Someone in the team who I often see around but don’t really know a lot about would be perfect. It was a lottery ticket and I started the holding camp with a winning number.

Abdul Buhari throws the discus for Team GB. He was thoroughly entertaining when I needed him to be and was also very laid back at the same time. At 6ft 4in and 130 kg Abdul seems like a gentle giant but having said that, you wouldn’t want to cross him – very much like myself!

Even though big Abs is older than I am, I proved a useful roomie to him also by sharing my championship and track and field knowledge with him. For Abs it was his first major Champs. What’s more, I have never roomed with a Muslim before, despite having many Muslim friends, so it was also very insightful and inspiring at the same time for me.

I kept myself entertained with a few books and my iPad – invaluable.

Well it’s been an injury plagued season and whilst in was at the world champs I was able to see my physio on a daily basis and my coach for that matter, both of whom had only seen me for bursts during the year. We put a good training block together and 5th place was the final outcome. It turned out to be a great ending to a very painful year.

I am looking forward to hitting the gym immediately and beginning my rehab phase.

William

I’m just sat here at Geneva airport in an open top restaurant in the departures section updating this blog under the Swiss sun. No clouds in the sky and it definitely feels warm.

Yesterday, I ran in Chambery hurdle festival, France. I’m feeling good because I am leaving here as the winner and I have posted a season’s best performance. Things are starting to fall into place for me after a backlash of interrupted training blocks. I ran two good races: 13.56 w0.0 and 13.63 w-1.7. This gives me confidence going into my next competition and bodes well for my second week into training post rehab.

Time was always an issue but I feel as though I have now reached a level that is solid. Even though I have not posted a time that threatens world leaders and even my own previous best, I have got my body into a position where it is ready to take that next jump.

Off I go now, flight into Bristol and then off to an awards evening at a school in London by 5pm. I am looking forward to the week ahead, putting a nice series of trainings sessions together. I have to be careful not to over compensate for lost time when I am training or else I risk fatigue and maybe even new injuries. At this stage I put faith in my coach and my own ability to shine through, when it really matters. Champs!

It’s been a while since I have put my sports thoughts on paper. There has been a lot going on.

During the month of May I went to a training centre in Italy for warm weather training with the idea of coming back in supreme shape, ready to compete at the Loughborough International.

However, during the second week of training I pulled my hamstring very slightly it was so minor I hardly noticed it and I didn’t have any symptoms on the physio bed.

To cut a long story short, here I am still injured and it has been two and a half weeks since the day I had a slight tear in a similar position on the same leg.

The season is still going ahead, with or without William Sharman and do I care? Well of course I do but I’m not as bothered as you might expect me to be. I have just got the keys to my new house today and I’m far too excited about fitting it with new wardrobes that I want to get designed and then there is the kitchen to alter… and all of that stuff. So there is plenty going on still.

Meanwhile it’s not as if I can’t train. I just can’t go hell for leather at the moment on the track, but I can in the gym… and I’m getting stuck into it Ronnie Coleman style – “light weight!”

South Africa: one of the few places in the world where you don’t mind taking a cold shower in January.

To me, this has to be one of the most beautiful countries I have visited; of course my views are heavily influenced by the part of town that I am staying in. The views are tremendous with mountains and rivers (a novelty to me), the weather is near to perfect apart from the odd heat wave, the place is very clean, the shops have everything I want and I am spoilt for places to eat out.

Training is going well, it’s tough and gruelling and all the things you expect it to be at this time of year but I need to put the work in now to get rid of my injuries and to sew my seeds for next season. I am optimistic about what the new year holds for me. I am highly motivated for any challenge.

One thing that I am really benefiting from is having training partners, this is making me work outside of my comfort zone and I am constantly endeavouring to be the best.

Here I am in Ostrava, in the east of Czech Republic. There is a heavy contingency in the line up tonight including World Record Holder and Olympic Champion Dayron Robles. He ran the world record on this very track two years ago.

Andy Turner from GB, Petre Svoboda, Arthur Noga and a sprinkle of Americans. All of these guys have a few races under their belts and are in pretty decent shape. I will have to have my wits about me if I want to put the pressure on.

I think the temperature is below 13 degrees Celsius and cloudy but I’m feeling good. If fireworks don’t happen here, they will happen soon.

Stay tuned on Eurosport, I run at 18:30 GMT.

Race number one:
It has been a lovely day weather wise with perfect conditions for sprinting. I won my race comfortably with a time of 13.60 seconds. This is encouraging because it is my fastest season opener ever.

Last year I think I ran 13.74 at the same meet. Furthermore, Friday I was vomiting as a result of a 24 hour bug that I caught and this morning I woke up with a sore back. I think it was a combination of my squats session the previous day (still training hard) and sleeping awkwardly.

My coach had a target time of only 13.70 which I surpassed so I am pleased with the job I did today.

I am looking forward to the next race!

I’m finally home and settled after an exhausting day of cheering on the most athletically gifted athletes from across the UK. There were some astonishing performances throughout the day from from a large percentage of individuals, including a new national record by a young lad who vertically jumped 78cm! This was definitely the performance of the day in my books.

During this training camp Willy G has been notorious for throwing a spanner in the works. An admirable character that always causes an accidental fuss over nothing. Let me give you an example: We had been walking around all day during the city centre. To rest our tired legs we decided to finish off our shopping spree in the world famous cake shop of Adam Sowa! We all stuffed our faces but it wasn’t until we had already left the building that Willy G piped up and said he wanted to buy a cake to take away…

“WHAT! Why didn’t you order that when we were at the front of the mile long queue? Or being served at the table by the waitresses?”

Another example was walking a mile to the physio centre, having treatment, and then piping up saying he had left his wallet in the room and needed to go back for it.

Oh well. How we will miss all this when its over.

The first session was difficult. Mostly because I had too much to eat for breakfast and hadn’t had a long enough time to let my food digest before the session started. After having quite a long period away from doing track work, I feel as though I’ve lost a little bit of co-ordination in my running. I’m not worried about this however because I am a quick learner. The rest of the boys Joel, Leon, Paul and Willy G, are all pumped and looking ripped every session. Stay tuned.

Today at training was a bit different. At the HI PAC (Hi Performance Athletics Centre) there were two Pigeons stuck inside the enormous glass building. The Pigeons had been trapped inside the building since the a.m. and were making quite a bit of debris fall from the window ledges and pillars down onto the track-side. I had arrived for an afternoon track session. Upon my arrival came a tiny man; no more than 4’9″ with black case over his shoulder and pest control written on his cap.

Within minutes a rifle had emerged from his shoulder case and he shot straight through the Pigeons one by one with a plastic round, to make sure he didn’t crack any of the windows.

The birds were still alive after this and remained perched so the pest controller had to climb some ladders to retrieve the stunned birds by hand and then dispose of them.

There were many different reactions today and it made me think whether that was the best way to handle the situation in the middle of the afternoon in a training environment? What do you think….? post your thoughts on my Facebook wall groups: “William Sharman.”

My wrist is far more mobile than anyone expected it would be. I am able to get into a start position, albeit very painful. I can not do power cleans because I can’t bend the wrist far enough back and doing any kind of upper body weights is a real struggle for my left arm. I just grit my teeth and do it!

I needed a little break after all the struggles going on I went to Tenerife for a while to catch some sun rays and put my feet up. Tenerife did everything it promised and the temperature was always up in the mid 20′s. I got myself a little hire car to bezz around the Island on and do my shopping. I wouldn’t advise anyone as tall as me to buy a Toyota Yaris but because the petrol gauge hardly moved all holiday, it suited my wallet nicely!

Last week I was also hit with man flu and a 24 hour bug! I just made good health in time for Tenerife.

The cast is finally off and my wrist is free. That was a total cast time of six weeks, reduced from the original recommendation of eight weeks. My range of movement in the wrist is next to nothing and it is going to be a real challenge trying to mobilise it fully again. Every time I try it’s really painful but I’ve just got to bare it.

I have got a two inch scar along my wrist, beneath my thumb where they went in for the operation. The scar is not fully healed and I need to keep a close eye on it in case it gets infected!

Anyway, I have recently been to Belfast and I really enjoyed it. I was helping to launch SPAR’s 5x 10k road races being held in Northern Ireland over the next year, the first being in Down Patrick. Belfast was a fascinating city and any one visiting the city would be hard pressed to leave without a new friend.

The past 48 hours have been very painful! On Tuesday night, the night before I was due to fly out to South Africa for Warm Weather training, I had a serious accident at the track.

Someone had placed my 6th hurdle in the wrong place. I had successfully completed the first two reps but repetition number three had a nasty surprise in store for me. As I raced down the track I tried to evade the 6th hurdle as I approached it as it was positioned far too close and it clipped me and sent me to the ground.

I was rushed to Accident and Emergency and operated on the next morning. Subsequently, I am not on my training camp anymore and I am housebound until my wrist heals.

The surgeons say that the damage to my wrist is very serious but I am optimistic that I can make a speedy recovery.

I will be on BBC Look East on Friday 29th January on a special sports programme.

I always look forward to opportunities to go in front of the box and talk to my followers! See you Friday guys.