Yesterday was a significant day in the global and the local sponsorship market with the formal; announcement here in Ireland of Allianz coming on board as a Global Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the next eight years.

Allianz officially began its eight-year worldwide partnership with the Movements on January 1, building on a collaboration with the Paralympic Movement since 2006.

“Allianz is proud to be the Worldwide Insurance Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements,” said Oliver Bäte, Chief Executive Officer of Allianz.

“As a supporter of the sports ecosystem and through shared core values of excellence, friendship, inclusion and respect, Allianz and our 148,000 employees and 100,000 agents are excited to care and deliver for athletes, their families and their ambitions.”

Since announcing the partnership in September 2018, the insurer has engaged fans, athletes, teams and employees through health across four pilot markets – Australia, China, France and Spain.

Allianz presented the Australian Olympic Committee’s Wellbeing Week to showcase ways to improve mental health. Allianz also worked with the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 to encourage people to walk and run for ‘Club Paris 2024’, an initiative to move and be part of the Games.

Allianz will expand local initiatives to connect with athletes and fans across the world. To name a few, the global insurer will offer consumers and employees the chance to take part in the Olympic Torch Relay at Beijing 2022 and will engage youth with the spirit and values of the Movements at its Allianz Sports Camps through trying sports, building friendships and learning from athletes. It will also support the movements with tailored insurance solutions and services.

“Having announced this new agreement in 2018, our teams have already been working together in key pilot markets to support athletes and the Olympic Movement,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “As we start this new Olympic year, we are excited to begin in earnest our global collaboration with Allianz.”

“Allianz brings global visibility to the athletes and values of the Paralympic Movement and we look forward to our next phase working together,” added IPC President Andrew Parsons.

Allianz has been a long term partner of Paralympics Ireland going back over the last decade and was a key enabler of how the organisation has grown its footprint in Irish sport and delivered exceptional returns on the global stage.

The timing of the Tokyo 2020 Games being postponed to 2021 means that a number of other local initiatives have crossed over with existing partnerships already in place. FBD Insurance is Team Ireland’s main commercial partner with the Olympic Federation of Ireland through to the conclusion of the Tokyo Games, though this will be a closed sector when that deal comes to an end.

Whether Allianz extends to include Ireland as one of the local Olympic Committees it works with and supports will be decided in time.

Yesterday Ellen Keane and Derval O’Rourke were speaking as ambassadors for the brand here in Ireland.

“I’m in the pool at Abbottstown and training for the Games this summer,” said Keane who is a great advocate for the two games being seen as equal.

“The more the media says, ‘the Olympics, the Olympics,’ the Paralympics is forgotten about and is often an afterthought. And it’s not. That is proven time and again when the Paralympics is on. The people who tune in, the numbers are the same, if not better, than the Olympics. We need to keep pressing that message.”

“It’s more than sport. It’s about trying to encourage people who don’t know things about disabilities to be more inclusive and to give us a chance. That’s what the Paralympics is about.”

It is also the highest level of physical achievement and Ireland has always been to the fore.

We have won a total of 66 Gold, 66 Silver and 94 Bronze medals at the Paralympic Games since they were first held in 1960. That is a remarkable achievement.

It is through the support of partners like Allianz that this level can be maintained and so many lives changed.

 

Sport for Business Partners