Louise Sauvage: Building Foundations

Mark Quigley talks with 11 time Paralympic medallist Louise Sauvage OAM, who is more entrepreneurial than she thought.“Where do you want to meet?” I ask. Without hesitation, the voice on the other end of the mobile says “Sydney’s Olympic Park," I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that Louise Sauvage OAM, an 11-time Paralympic medallist, Australian Female Athlete of the Year, World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability and International Female Wheelchair Athlete of the Year would suggest being interviewed at what you could call ‘her office’. So when we meet I jokingly suggest this is “her office”. “Actually,” says Louise with a smile, “I do work part-time for NSWIS (NSW Institute of Sport)!”

Over the next hour, I am supposed to be asking her about which career path she has chosen after a life dedicated to sport. Maybe it’s the sports star turned CEO like Nick Farr-Jones and Michael Hawker, or maybe it’s sports star cum entrepreneur like George Gregan and coffee shops or Ian Thorpe and well … just about everything.

“No, that’s not me,” offers Louise. “I was always going to give something back to the community so I established the ‘Aspire to be a Champion’ Foundation. We provide support to aspiring athletes with a disability by providing financial assistance through our grant program so that hopefully their dreams become more than just dreams.”

The ‘Aspire to be a Champion’ Foundation was established with seed funding from the Manly Sea Eagles NRL team. The team’s Players’ Foundation annually selects two causes to get behind and in 2000 they chose Louise to be a recipient of their fundraising efforts. However, Louise unselfishly decided not to directly accept the income but in-turn to put it back into the community through the establishment of her own Foundation. When I suggest to her that maybe starting up a business, even a not-for-profit one, is perhaps her entrepreneurial streak coming out after all she smiles but politely dismisses my notion.

“We’re a small, volunteer based Foundation, with very limited financial resources” says Louise. “This year’s grants program closed in early December after which we’ll give out about $20,000 in cash grants to some of the many promising athletes with a disability in Australia.” As she continues, Louise becomes increasingly passionate about just what impact the Foundation is having on grant recipients. Her voice is in full flux and hands waving about. “Our grants are not big amounts but they may just have the opportunity to contribute to an athlete becoming an Australian representative.”

I naively suggest to Louise that in a sports mad country like Australia, surely if the athletic ability is there then it cannot be that hard to secure corporate support. Louise has enjoyed major sponsorships from Telstra, Qantas and National Australia Bank just to name a few. She laughs again at my notion but this time dismisses it not so politely. In fact the next couple of minutes is the only time over the course of our interview that her tone is equal measure anger and frustration, “I had to win races first, build a media profile and national attention before any of my major sponsorships occurred.” Louise doesn’t hold back and offers a blunt assessment of sport for athletes with a disability. “Athletes with a disability are perceived as less marketable and so it is more difficult to secure sponsorship than if I were an able bodied athlete. That’s just the way it is.”

She has a point. If, as an able bodied athlete, she had been an 11-time Olympic medallist the lucrative endorsement deals surely would have followed. She could have enjoyed the opportunity to flog a watch or a breakfast cereal and easily doubled or tripled her Foundation’s Grants Program.

Yet, despite global recognition for her athletic accomplishments, traditional endorsement opportunities have not eventuated. And Louise seems genuinely unthawed by this except where it comes to the flow on effects such endorsement deals would make to the financial position of the Foundation. “It does make raising money for the Foundation more difficult because without external sponsor support, and public donations we will not be able to give the next generation of potential Australian Paralympians the opportunity to represent their country.”

For now however, Louise like some of the athletes her Foundation supports, is busy focusing on coaching athletes in preparation for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

As we wrap up our conversation, I cannot help but again think that Louise is more entrepreneurial than she realises. Her business is a not-for-profit and its product is athletes. So in a way maybe she is a CEO after all, but unlike the sports star turned CEO of a publicly listed company who may reap financial rewards for shareholders, Louise’s return on investment rewards every Australian.

For donations go to www.aspire.au.com