ZUMA Press Inc
(2009-02-01 20:05:08)
When a ski racer safely negotiates a deliberately treacherous slope and shudders to a halt in the finish area, with one television cameraman to avoid, there is an immediate automatic reaction.
No matter what time has been recorded, the skier in question will whip off one ski and prop it against his or her shoulder, sometimes blowing it a kiss, as the camera zooms in for a head shot, valuable advertising time for the ski manufacturers that are essential to the survival of alpine ski racing.
So valuable in fact that it is not so unusual to see a slalom skier who missed a gate actually sidestep back up a slope and complete the course in fear of not granting the companies playtime before millions of television viewers.
"We've reduced the number of racers but the best are unaffected," Michel Vion, director of marketing for ski manufacturers Rossignol, said of any fallout for the top skiers from the financial crisis gripping the world.
Hard figures are difficult to come by for most ski racers, but veteran Austrian Super-G star Herman Maier still earns some five million euros a year, even though this is down on what he earned at his peak.
Outspoken American Bode Miller earns even more, although the former world champion has to pay out for the campervan he uses and fund his backroom staff after spurning what was on offer from the US team.
"Miller is an exception. He's a champion but also a personality like Tomba 'la bomba'," Vion said in reference to the now-retired Italian slalom specialist Alberto Tomba.
Christian Frison-Roche, head of alpine skiing competition for ski manufacturers Salomon, said that sponsorship rates went up when Miller changed his ski supplier from Atomic to Head three years ago as the latter company eyed development in the North American continent.
With ski sales falling by half over the last 10 years, to 3.5 million, Frison-Roche said that Salomon had "readapted its budget to sales".
Notably, he said, that meant concentrating on markets which offered clear return on investment: Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland.
Skiers' revenues are based on a couple of core income sources, the largest of which comes from the ski maker.
Revenue depends largely on the skier's fame and his of her position in World Cup standings.
The skier will be paid in two instalments, the first coming in the summer and the second at the end of the season and tied to results.
Italy's Manfred Moelgg, the winner of the World Cup slalom crystal globe last season, signed for Rossignol last spring for an annual payment of between 250,000 and 350,000 euros.
Moelgg, however, has not yet achieved a podium finish during the gruelling World Cup circuit this season and risks bringing home the lower of those sums.
Skiers are also sponsored by their home ski resorts, leading slalom skier Jean-Baptiste Grange of France reaping 100,000 euros for carrying the name of "Valloire" on the front of his helmet.
His team-mate Julien Lizaroux has featured in the French press exhorting the resort of La Plagne after winning a slalom in Kitzbuehel last week.
Other sponsors include Raiffeisen bank, which pay one million euros for the privilege of appearing on Herman Maier's race suit, while combined supremo Benjamin Raich gets 700,000 euros from insurance company Uniqa.
British female skier Chemmy Alcott, who has yet to claim a World Cup podium finish, said that she was grateful just to be competing as a professional racer, spending all winter on the road in Europe and chasing the snow in the southern hemisphere in the summer.
"None of this would be possible without the support of the British Team and my personal sponsors, Witan Investment Trust," she said.
There is also the matter of prize money, with win bonuses a welcome addition to sponsorship deals.
At Kitzbuehel, the winners of the slalom and downhill each received 70,000 euros.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
