Lenovo Going For Gold At Olympics

Athletes are using Lenovo computers to help with their training, manage their careers, and communicate with friends, family and fans. The athletes, journalists, judges, and others supporting the games are giving the company a platform for worldwide recognition, just a year after the Chinese computer company bought IBM's personal computer business.

"It gives us a platform from which to introduce ourselves to the world," Craig Merrigan, vice president for strategy market intelligence and design at Lenovo, said during an interview Friday. "Lenovo is a relatively new brand to people outside of China, so what better event than the Olympics to use to introduce it?"

Under The Olympic Partner Program, Lenovo is taking advantage of exclusive global marketing opportunities, supplying infrastructure and hardware for the event and hosting services for and about the athletes.

About 5,000 Lenovo desktop PCs, 350 servers and nearly 1,000 notebook computers are powering the four major Olympic applications -- Games Management Systems, Games INFO 2006 System, Venue and Central Results System, and Commentator Information System.

"There is no such thing as a 'second try' at the Olympic Games," Enrico Frascari, information technology managing director of the Olympics' Torino Organizing Committee, said in a statement issued Thursday. "Thanks to the reliable and secure PC solution developed and supported by Lenovo, we have passed a critical operational period in Torino with record-breaking performance from the technology system."

Athletes, trainers, coaches, and journalists are flocking to seven Internet lounges. A Lenovo Champions Blog features 11 Olympic athletes from the United States, Slovenia, Norway, Germany, and China who are helping to build global employee unity, while driving business and raising brand awareness around the world.

"The Olympics has a set of values and wants those values to be reflected in its sponsors," Merrigan said.

The games are about international cooperation, overall excellence, trustworthiness and goodwill, all things Lenovo strives to achieve and project, Merrigan said.

The event is serving as more than just a marketing campaign, though. In addition to giving about 100 Lenovo employees (about 75 from China and about 25 from North Carolina) the opportunity to travel to Italy and experience the excitement first-hand, they're also strengthening morale throughout the company, Merrigan said.

"Everybody around here is following the Olympics," he said. "They inquire about how it's going. Everybody's really proud about how our products are performing. When you see things like scores on television, that's going through our PCs. When commentators look up information about athletes to comment on the action, they're using our PCs. Lenovo is quite eager to introduce our brand globally, and this is the perfect platform."