Corben Sharrah Hits the Pages of Sports Illustrated

‘Tis the season for Olympic sponsors to start revving up the PR engine, as athletes start revving up their game in the dash to London 2012.

Straight out of the gate, comes a special advertising section from McDonald’s, entitled “Time|Out.” The section will run in an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated and, though we have not seen the section in-full just yet, we can assume that it highlights up-and-coming athletes in Olympic sports. A similar section highlighted Apollo Ohno in 2004 (though, at that point, Ohno already had a Gold and a Silver medal from the Salt Lake games)

The interview covers some good ground, both on Corben and for BMX racing in general, allowing the reader a rare peek into how top athletes started down the path of their chosen sport. In Corben’s case, he says “My parents got me a bike when I was two, and I was riding it with no training wheels, basically the first time out. When I was five, this dirt track nearby had commercials on TV. I’d call the phone number, but hang up because I didn’t know what to say. So my dad took me one night to watch. The next week, he took me to ride. Ever since, I’ve been racing.”

A big thanks to McDonald’s for shining the spotlight on the great sport of BMX Racing, and on a tremendous athlete in Corben Sharrah. You chose very well.

News will update this story when we find out in which issue the section will appear–you’ll want to pick up a copy!

—Mike Carruth