The German carmarker is the Official Mobility Partner of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as well as a Tier One sponsor of London 2012. 

The group of athletes that will will form the BMW Performance Team include Olympic decathlon champon Bryan Clay and swimmer Janet Evans (pictured), a four-time gold medallist who recently announced plans to launch a comeback to the pool for London 2012. 

Combined, members of the BMW Performance Team, which also includes swimmers Ricky Berens and Natalie Coughlin and world 400 metres champion Sanya Richards-Ross, have amassed 12 Olympic gold medals, seven silver medals and seven bronze medals.

BMW is also helping several Paralympic athletes, including swimmer Mallory Weggemann, who holds 15 world records. 

"As a company dedicated to performance and efficiency, we believe in and share many of the ideals of the Olympic Movement," said Dan Creed, Vice President, Marketing, BMW of North America.

"We are proud to welcome these extraordinary athletes to the BMW family and look forward to an exciting year of development ahead."

A similar scheme was launched in Britain last year and features some of the country's biggest hopes for success at London 2012, including swimmer Rebecca Adlington and diver Tom Daley.

Besides financial backing, the American members of the Peformance Team will also have·access to BMW resources and technologies to help them prepare for London 2012.·


BMW's engineers are currently working with USA Track & Field to measure athlete velocity using advanced, stereo-vision technologies not unlike those currently being tested in BMW vehicles to improve automotive safety.

With these vision systems, BMW hopes to track and analyse athlete motion through the mechanical phases of a sport or event. 

"Innovative engineering is at the very core of BMW, and we see the structure of this partnership as no different," said Creed.

"We are looking forward to making a meaningful contribution to sport through the application of our technologies to athletic performance across a number of Olympic events."

Earlier this year, the car manufacturer launched BMW Drive for Team USA, a national drive programme that invites consumers to show their support for Team USA.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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