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January 12, 1996 - Image 41

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1996-01-12

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

siness

Swimming
With Champs

R

ttorney Debbie Schlus-
sel tried ascending the
ladder of state politics.
Now she's trying for
Mt. Olympus.
Ms. Schlussel, 26,
has offered to help win
endorsements and TV
commercials for Scott
Donie, a silver medalist in the
10-meter platform diving com-
petition at the 1992 Olympics.
He is a 1996 Olympic hopeful.
She'll package Mr. Donie's
image for free, but not because
she has a lack of experience.
While working at a Boston law
firm, she used her marketing
skills to win contracts for
clients like Cam Neely of the
Boston Bruins and Doug
Gilmour of the Toronto Scott Donie: 1992 medalist and 1996 hopeful.
Maple Leafs.
She's also done some
Donie, she says, "started teach-
sports consulting work ing children with learning dis-
for National Football abilities and learned to conquer
League teams, mainly in himself and the kids and their
the area of American learning disabilities."
Disabilities Act compli-
Plus, "most of these athletes
ance, she says.
are so into their sport, that's
But she saw Mr. what they're concentrating on.
Donie as a special case. They don't have time to worry
After seeing him give a about the business aspect," Ms.
TV interview about his Schlussel says. Mr. Donie dives
post-Olympics experi- four hours daily, six days a week,
ence, she contacted him and works with children every
in Miami. -
day at the McGlannan School in
"He had had a ner- Miami.
vous breakdown. He
The two of them met a few
didn't know what to do weeks ago and agreed that she'll
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
with himself when it was seek out contracts for endorse-
over," she says. "He had ments and commercials as he
worked his whole life to go to the gears up for Atlanta next year.
Olympics and win a medal. He
Mr. Donie, Ms. Schlussel said,
came back from the Olympics had hired an attorney to help
and people weren't running out him sell his image, but nothing
to get his picture. They actually much was happening. Odd, she
find that in a lot of Olympic ath- thought. With his good looks,
letes. They work their whole life athletic prowess and genuine
to get to the Olympics, let alone concern for children, he would
to win a medal, and they don't be a natural role model.
know what to do with their
"He's a marketer's dream. He
lives."
does this public service-orient-
Twenty-seven-year-old Mr. ed work with these kids. He was

A corporate
attorney has
jumped into the
image-making
business with an
Olympic diving
champion.

Debbie Schlussel is going for the gold.

an all-American in college
and a national diving
champion and a medalist.
Companies go for some-
body with a wholesome,
all-American image. I
think the fact he works
with kids, that adds to his
image. He didn't have
anybody going out there -
and getting deals," Ms. Schlus-
sel says.
Then again, many people con-
sider diving to be a "cursed"
sport, even though it's a huge
draw at the summer Olympic
Games.
Olympian Greg Louganis, for
example, has revealed that he
has the AIDS virus. Nathan
Mead, for whom an interna-
tional diving competition is
named, died when he hit his
head on a diving board.
Mr. Donie, in fact, has barely
dived again from the 10-meter
height since his 1993 breakdown
at an Olympic festival in San
Antonio. He dives on 3-meter
and 1-meter spring boards, Ms.
Schlussel says, and has won sev-
eral international diving com-
petitions since 1993.
Ms. Schlussel, a former De-
troiter who works as a corporate
attorney for an insurance com-
pany in Stevens Point, Wis., has
law and master of business ad-
ministration degrees from the
University of Wisconsin: She is
a graduate of Southfield High

School and Hillel Day School.
She earned some notoriety af-
ter she ran for a state House of
Representatives seat in 1990.
Ms. Schlussel contested the elec-
tion in a post-campaign lawsuit,
contending the vote count was
unfair. She lost the case, but not
her mettle. Another run for the
state legislature might be in her
future, she says.
Campaigning taught her a
few lessons about marketing.
"My best marketing endeav-
or ever was my campaign. I'm
translating a lot of things I
learned marketing myself to
marketing for Scott."
In the few weeks she's had to
investigate Mr. Donie's com-
mercial potential, she's talked to
Olympics sports marketing
managers, athletic apparel corn-
panies and "a lot" of Fortune 500
companies. Coca Cola may also
be interested in Mr. Donie for its
"Hometown Heroes" program,
Ms. Schlussel says.
"I'm pressing for TV commer-
cials. He's a very muscular, good-
looking guy," she says.
She's helping Mr. Donie free
of charge, partially because he
makes do on a small stipend
from an Olympic committee and
not much from the school.
"I want to help him out. Who
knows? If I do a good job and he
gets a gold medal, maybe after-
ward I can start charging him,"
she says.



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