Sponsorship involves putting your own political capital at risk, so they are going to help that person to succeed. Women get promoted; they don't get sponsored. Women know they are on their own if they get that promotion.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People actually get sponsors based on the merits of the Cup, not on the merits of the sailors.
If you have more money than you need, you have to give it away. It's a duty. I get to choose whom to sponsor, and I like to give to the areas that I know something about.
We try to entertain first, advertise second. When you find out that it's sponsored, we've already won you over. We try to make it obvious that the brand has made it better.
The commitments, schedule and sponsor appearances don't change. It gets more busy, because you get more popular, and the more popular you are, it actually gets more busy. They're like, 'Yeah, let's use her, she's hot right now. Let's do a shoot!'
Men can have a huge turnover of sponsorship and still survive a lot better than the women. But the women's ratings are better, at least at home in the United States than in the men's tennis.
The stereotypes really play into what kinds of companies women can get funded for.
I love my sponsors. They make things so much fun for me. We do really fun and exciting things, so I always have a blast. It doesn't ever seem like work.
At the end of the day, if we don't show female sports on TV, how are sponsors going to want to sponsor women? And if we don't support the women, how do you expect us to get results? It's a bit of a catch-22.
If you go out there and your main purpose is to get a sponsor, then it's not gonna work. Just go out there and have fun. That's how I got sponsored.
I think every athlete wants to get sponsored. If you do really well in your sport, then I think sponsorship can help you get rewarded in that sense: doing what you can for your sponsor. It's just another achievement in life.