The "3a-Comms" system puts the Olympic Bobsleigh Team on the right track to Turin..

The British Bobsleigh Association today (Friday 3rd February 2006) announced a £165k sponsorship deal with a consortium headed by 3aIT, the Open Source IT provider. The "keys" to the first £50k tranche of a communications system were presented to the Team, including state of the art mobile computing provided by Toshiba and telephony equipment provided by 3aIT.

The "3a-Comms" system has put the Team on the right track to Turin, and is tipped to have a significant impact on the Team's prospects for Vancouver 2010.

The presentation was made by Councillor Jean Burnham, Chairman Horsham District Council, with Simon Meade OBE, Sponsorship Director of the British Bobsleigh Association and Roger Clark, CEO of 3aIT.

Background:

In 2005 British no 1 women's "brakeman" and World Championship Silver Medallist Jackie Davies had voiced concern on behalf of the elite athletes that the communications difficulties inherent in a nomadic season with a remote battery of specialist coaches and advisors in the UK were giving a growing advantage to teams from "ice nations" such as Switzerland, USA, Russia and Germany who have such support on hand.

The Board of the British Bobsleigh Association has moved rapidly to address these issues and recruited the aid of a major sponsor in the process.

3aIT has built a web-based system to enable the team to keep in touch with each other, their specialist coaches, their headquarters and their families while they travel around the world during their 5 month tour of ice training and competition. The same 3a-Comms System enables World Class athletes to train at home during the off-season with daily on-line training schedules, feedback and monitoring.

Davies explains the difference the system has made:
"The online training schedules and live updates are as close as we could get to having our coaches and advisors with us. We feel much more confident about competing in the years ahead with the "ice nations". With the new communications systems there is a real buzz about the sport - everyone knows about what is going on and the latest developments back home - and we can all contribute!"

Davies' driver in the GB1 sled is Nicola Minichiello, previously a GB International heptathlete: "In our quest for medals at the highest level in this sport, communication has been one of the major hurdles for us to overcome. The 3a-Comms System gives us tremendous support and has removed the feelings of isolation when we are on the circuit and dislocation when we are at home. In an ideal world we would take all our support staff with us - but that would cost a lot, and we won't get improved funding until we are more successful. It's that catch 22 that so many sports find themselves fighting to overcome. This system has given us a level playing field. We owe 3aIT an enormous debt of gratitude for helping to put us on the right track to Turin, and to Vancouver in 2010."

Great Britain is pre-eminent amongst "non-ice nations" - with a long history of success in World Championships and Olympics - including Gold for Dixon and Nash in 1964 and Bronze for Sean Olsson's 4-Man in 1998. Indeed Bobsleigh was invented by British tourists on holiday in St Moritz in the late 1890s. With the British public's warm attachment for the sport of Bobsleigh, eyes will be on Minichiello and Davies as the best medal prospects this time round.

Roger Clark, the CEO of 3aIT cites the professionalism of the Elite athletes as the hook that secured his companies' involvement. "Bobsleigh is infectious - there's no doubt about that, and it's an outstanding vehicle for corporate hospitality with tangible returns on sponsorship investment. But primarily our decision was based on the belief that - given the right support - we have in our top athletes the ability to take on the world. If World Class Performance requires world class support services then 3aIT and its partners are committed to delivering those services for the next 5 years."

At the departure event held at the Copthorne Hotel Gatwick, 3aIT, British Bobsleigh Association and the Olympic Team held a presentation for invited guests, photographers and reporters, local schoolchildren, sports science students and CCF cadets who then had the opportunity to meet the athletes.

For further information contact press@bobteamGB.org