USA Bobsled and Skeleton has entered into a multi-year endorsement deal with American Honda, one that will give the sliding sports federation financial and technical support going into both next winter's Milan-Cortina Olympics and the 2030 Games in the French Alps.
The deal, announced Wednesday, has been in the works for some time. Honda — which becomes the official premier technology partner of the teams — will give USABS, among other things, access to its wind tunnel in Ohio for research and development purposes.
Such access is crucial when determining optimal sled positioning and other aerodynamic factors in sports where one-hundredth of a second can be the difference between winning and losing. Eventually, the partnership will evolve into sled design as well.
“Long term, they’ll be playing a role in helping us design bobsleds," USABS CEO Aron McGuire told The Associated Press. "We'll be looking at building four-man sleds initially. They will be providing the aerodynamic expertise and providing us insights, recommendations, into how we can best design a sled as it relates to other factors, like safety of the athletes sitting in the sled and the performance side of the design.”
The teams will also have Acura logos on their sleds for all competitions through the 2030 Games.
“In sports where sleds can reach speeds of over 90 miles per hour and the difference between first and last can be measured in fractions of a second, our Honda engineers are eager to apply their engineering skills and racing background to the USABS programs," said Larry Geise, the executive vice president of Honda Development & Manufacturing of America.
Financial specifics were not disclosed, but the deal is one of the more significant in USABS history.
“It's at the top of the cash partners that we've had,” McGuire said.
The news comes at a key time for the programs, with the next Olympics just seven months away. The U.S. has legitimate medal hopes in bobsled and skeleton going into Milan-Cortina; Kaysha Love is the reigning women's monobob champion, women's pilots Kaillie Humphries Armbruster and Elana Meyers Taylor are the two most decorated female drivers in Olympic history, and the American duo of Austin Florian and Mystique Ro won a gold medal in the new mixed team skeleton discipline at the world championships earlier this year.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
