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Erica Kerner, the director of adidas' 2008 Olympics Program, runs as a Beijing Olympic torchbearer in Qinghai province on Monday. Courtesy of ADIDAS
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Erica Kerner was once a nationally ranked tennis player in the United States, but her sporting apogee came far away from those early glories when she trotted around Qinghai Lake in western China as a torchbearer for the Olympic relay on Monday.
Kitted out in the now familiar red-and-white tops and training pants provided by adidas, her employer, the director of the sports apparel manufacturer's 2008 Olympics Program says her role in the relay was a wonderful reward for several years of hard work.
"It was an amazing way to finish off four years of hard work and get excited now for the final phase of our Olympics program - the Olympic Games themselves," she said.
Speaking at her company's Beijing headquarters in Chaoyang district, it's obvious Kerner is enjoying her role as one of the organizers behind the Games and the business of making her company the nation's No 1 sports good retailer.
More than 15 years in marketing and life in Greater China have groomed the New Yorker, who boasts an international relations degree from Tufts University and experience at five Summer and Winter Games, for the Beijing Games.
"As a China person these are the Games I am most excited by. Seeing the universal support from the people and from the government, it's going to be absolutely spectacular," she says.
"Having been here when we bid and didn't get the (Sydney) Games to the time when we did win (Moscow 2001), that was one of the most memorable experiences, seeing the expressions on people's faces, knowing that the Olympics would at last be coming to China."
Her involvement with the Beijing Games began in Athens in 2004, when she helped pitch adidas to the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and was informed soon after BOCOG had selected it as a partner.
"They picked us because we have been involved with the Olympic Games since 1928 when founder Adi Dassler made track spikes for athletes," she says. "We have supported more athletes, teams and Games than any other sports equipment manufacturer."
"We were an Olympic partner at Athens and will be at the London Games. We are also a World Cup sponsor, so we are used to being a supporter of big events and clearly BOCOG felt the same."
The company beat all major brands for the account, including Nike, Li Ning and Mizuna.
The deal involves kitting out the volunteers, the Chinese Olympic team (among others), torchbearers and escort runners.
Plus cash.
She won't divulge how much but German magazine Der Spiegel quoted adidas CEO Herbert Hainer as saying it was around 70 million ($109 million).
"There are over 100,000 volunteers. These truly are the largest and most ambitious Games the world has ever seen and BOCOG wanted a partner who would understand this and help them stage the best Games ever," Kerner says.
She is naturally nonplussed by negative reactions to the torch relay, mainly in Western countries, but believes they have brought the Chinese people together.
"The torch is the world's property, the IOC's (International Olympic Committee) property. It was disappointing for people to make a symbol of harmony, peace and positive feelings into something else, but what they did was draw people together."
In proficient Chinese, the keen scuba diver quotes adidas' slogan for the Olympics: "Together in 2008. Impossible is nothing."
"In the beginning this was purely about sports but because of all the events in recent months, like the torch relay and earthquake, the message has become so much stronger, like it's not just about sports any more.
"The world does not understand China, all the positive changes that have happened and its energy. This campaign is a great statement for Chinese people at this time."
The "Together in 2008: Impossible is nothing" campaign has become part of the Games, as intended, and won a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in France earlier this month.
It was the first such award for adidas and China, what Kerner calls "our first gold medal".
Now she is intent on making the European-based company the market leader, a position held by Nike, who Kerner previously worked for.
"We (adidas) have been in China just 10 years and there has been massive change and growth in that time. By the end of the Olympics we will be the No 1 brand and soon after we hope China will be a bigger market than the whole of Europe, second only to the US."
She says, adidas is the tops sports apparel brand in the most happening place at the biggest sporting event in the world.
"It's the perfect trifecta," she says, patently pleased with herself. "It's got three stripes. Get it?"
