Team GB and Worldwide Olympic Partner Procter & Gamble today announced Skeleton World Champion and Olympic Silver Medallist, Shelley Rudman, an aspiring Team GB member, has joined its global family of athletes.
The announcement also kicks off P&G’s Thank You Mum campaign, which pays tribute to Mums around the world, and as the Olympic Winter Games approach is highlighting those mums who raise world class athletes.
Shelley is one of the UK’s medal hopes for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Shelley originally from Wiltshire, used to work in teaching, now lives and trains in Sheffield and won Britain’s only medal (Silver) of the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games. That success was followed by an 18-month break from the sport when she had her first child with partner and fellow Team GB skeleton slider hopeful, Kristan Bromley.
If Shelley is picked to compete for Team GB in Sochi, in addition to being accompanied by her mum and dad, Shelley will have lots of family support in Russia, including from her six-year-old daughter, Ella.
Shelley comments, “I am incredibly excited about the possibility of being selected for Sochi 2014. Going into the event as World Champion has given me much more confidence, but also comes with the added pressure of expectation! It’s been a long journey to get to this point and I have so much to thank my mum for. She has always been my rock over the years of training, including all the highs and the lows, so it’s a fantastic boost to me that P&G will enable me to have my mum at the track in Sochi cheering me on!”
As part of the Sochi 2014 Thank You Mum campaign, P&G is paying tribute to mums around the world through the Raising an Olympian film series. The short films showcase the journey of world-class athletes as seen through the eyes of their mum. Shelley Rudman and her mum, Josie Rudman, star in one of the films and reveal insights into Shelley’s journey as an athlete and how she transferred skills she learnt in other sports in the face of injury.
The series of 28 films brings to life the daily lessons all mums teach their children, from their first steps to coping with life’s successes and disappointments.
Marc Pritchard, P&G Global Brand Building Officer says “P&G brands look at Olympic sponsorship through a special lens. Our brands don’t just live at the finish line; they’re about the everyday journey athletes take to get to the Games; a journey they started in childhood with their mum. That’s why, if a P&G brand sponsors an athlete, we also celebrate the mother who helped get them there.”
The P&G Sochi 2014 campaign will come to life through P&G’s iconic brands and their inspiring campaigns:
The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will take place over 17 days from the 7th – 23rd February 2014 and features seven Olympic sports. Team GB have won medals at the last three Winter Games (Rhona Martin’s curling gold in Salt Lake City, Shelley Rudman’s skeleton silver in 2006 and a skeleton gold for Amy Williams in Vancouver 2010) and hopes are high for the GB Class of 2014.