UPS Olympics Sponsorship

UPS Delivers the 2000 Olympic Games Invitations

Lausanne, Switzerland, September 15, 1999 -- The first relay of the 2000 Olympic Games began today with the dispatch of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) official invitations to the 200 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) expected to participate in the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. UPS will speed the invitations around the globe through a network that hurdles oceans and mountains to deliver these packages in specially created UPS Worldwide Express envelopes. This is the third Olympic Games for which UPS has delivered the official invitations to the participating countries.

A ceremony celebrating the one-year countdown was held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland where UPS drivers accepted the Olympic invitations signed by IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch. The invitations were shipped today using UPS OnLine^TM WorldShip®, a new internet-based package shipping and tracking system, which integrates a customer's existing database with all functions of ups.com, including information links to speed customs clearance. These UPS envelopes feature UPS Athlete Training Assistance Program (ATAP) member, Eugene Swift, a human resources supervisor at the UPS North Bay Center in Oakland, California. Swift, a 1996 Olympian who finished sixth in the 110 meter hurdles, is vying for a spot on the United States 2000 Olympic Team.

UPS ATAP helps the company's employee-athletes balance work and elite training schedules, while earning regular wages, as they strive for Olympic dreams.

"To showcase a UPS employee-athlete on our special express packaging links our employees and customers directly with our global Olympic partnership," said Rosemary Windsor, vice president, UPS Olympic and Corporate Events. "And in keeping with SOCOG's (Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) commitment to host the 'Green Games', a unique feature of the UPS invitation envelope is its reusability."

The reusable UPS Worldwide Express envelope is manufactured using a bleach-free process and is made of 100 percent recycled fiber, of which 80 percent is post-consumer fiber. Environmental savings include a 50 percent reduction of source material when only one envelope is used.

As a worldwide Olympic partner, UPS provides global expertise and services to the IOC, NOCs, Olympic Games organizing committees, sports federations and national teams. UPS is the world's largest express carrier and package delivery company, serving more than 200 countries and territories.

The company was chosen by Fortune magazine as "The World's Most Admired Company in the Mail, Package and Freight Industry." UPS employs nearly 330,000 people worldwide and shipped 3.14 billion packages and documents last year.

UPS drivers Pino Ermanno (driver in Lugano, Switzerland) and Rogerio Ribeiro (Center Leader in Geneva, Switzerland) prepare to deliver the official invitations to the 2000 Olympic Games, as UPS Geneva Operations Manager, Gian-Marco Caggia deposits the Worldwide Express envelopes into the UPS bags. The specially created UPS Worldwide Express envelopes carrying the official invitations are now speeding around the globe using UPS OnLine® WorldShip® tracking system.

John Coates, Australian Olympic Committee President, and Erin Hetherington, 7-year-old winner of the SOCOG "Share the Spirit" art competition, display the UPS Worldwide Express envelope featuring UPS Athlete Training Assistance Program employee-athlete Eugene Swift will carry the 2000 Olympic Games invitations to 200 National Olympic Committees around the globe.

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