The Fiat Group is a Major Sponsor of the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, having linked its name with the XX Olympic Winter Games since Turin put forward its candidacy, thanks above all to the personal commitment and international persuasion of Giovanni Agnelli, who was then Chairman of the Torino 2006 Honour Committee. Fiat decided to contribute to the success of the event by offering the Committee financial resources, products, professional skills and organisational capacity, a pool of resources worth 40 million Euro on the market.

Fiat Auto’s commitment has taken two forms: the creation of an “Olympic” fleet of cars offered to the organisation, and the sponsorship of a number of Olympic events. Fiat Auto has also been recognised as a “Green Sponsor” of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, which entitles it to use the “Environment 2006” trademark, an important acknowledgement of the company’s commitment to environmental protection and sustainability.

The Olympic fleet for the organisation

Fiat Auto has provided over 3,000 cars to transfer athletes, journalists and the staff of volunteers. The star is the brand new Fiat Sedici, 200 of which have been delivered, an original 4x4 off-road vehicle due to go on the market in March, that combines the enjoyable driving and handling of a compact Fiat with the “off-road” performance of a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV): this is why the Fiat Sedici is the official car of the Torino XX Olympic Winter Games. The ceremony of the symbolic handing over of the keys to the fleet took place at the recent Bologna Motor Show, in the presence of Evelina Christillin, TOROC Deputy President, and the great ski champion Alberto Tomba, together with numerous journalists, local authorities and athletes.

There are numerous other models in the Olympic fleet: from the Grande Punto to the Fiat Croma, Panda 4x4 and Fiat Idea, the Alfa 159 and Alfa Crosswagon, the Lancia Musa and the Lancia Phedra and Thesis flagships, and Ducato vans for goods transport. Safe driving courses have been organised for the 3,000 Torino 2006 volunteers, and Fiat Auto participated by supplying a number of Fiat Idea’s, Lancia Musa‘s and Alfa 147’s.

Sponsorship of Olympic events

Fiat Auto has chosen to link its brands with a number of events, to reflect the “vocation” and character of the individual brands. Fiat sponsors the Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation and the Fiat Freestyle Team, which brings together the strongest Italian snowboarders and freestyle skiers. Alfa Romeo supports the members of the Italian Alpine ski squad who make up its Ski Racing Team. Lancia is linked with figure skating, through “Lancia Ice” and the testimonial Carolina Kostner, flag-bearer of the Italian delegation. Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles sponsors the Italian men’s and women’s Ice hockey teams.

The Fiat Group is also an Official Partner of the IX Paralympic Winter Games. This is one way of underlining the Group’s social commitment to the disabled, particularly through Fiat Auto, which has launched important initiatives as part of the Autonomy Project which, since 1995, has been developing services and means of transport specifically for people with limited motor capabilities, to simplify the use of the car by the disabled. Fiat Auto will also be present at Casa Italia which it will sponsor and where a Fiat Sedici, an Alfa 159 and a Lancia Y Momo will be on hand. Casa Italia, will be erected in Turin’s Valentino Park: it will provide the headquarters for the Italian Olympic Committee Coni and, for the period of the Olympic Winter Games, all Italian athletes who have won a medal will be housed there.

And finally, Fiat Auto is a corporate Sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay, the tour that set off from Rome on December 8, 2005, and will reach Turin on the day of the inauguration of the XX Olympic Winter Games, covering over 11,000 kilometres in little more than two months, and visiting numerous Italian towns and cities, including Florence, Genoa, Palermo, Naples, Bologna, Cortina d'Ampezzo, and plenty more.

Fiat, congeniality and sport

Fiat has played a leading role in the numerous events building up to the next Olimpic Winter Games of Torino 2006 Winter Olympics, which are now just around the corner, both as a sponsor of this great international event, and as a “supporter” of the athletes preparing for the Olympic competition. Fiat’s presence is underlined by the appealing, positive values that the brand wishes to convey, and the choice of the teams it sponsors reflects this strategy, starting with the Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation. The decision to be a part of the Jamaican adventure is a clear message of Fiat’s belief in the values of good humour, open-mindedness, determination and a positive approach that the team represents.

Since its debut at Calgary in 1988, the Jamaican team’s participation at the Olympic Games challenges accepted wisdom (Winter sports exclude those who do not have Winters) and the will to surpass limits, think laterally and to tackle life with a pioneering spirit. In spite of intense effort and commitment, the Jamaican athletes failed to qualify for the final stages of the Olympic Winter Games this time round, but the goodwill they arouse in everyone they meet remains undiminished. And Fiat’s support for them will continue. Fiat paired the Jamaicans with the Panda 4x4 and a broad range of initiatives: from the team’s new bobsleigh (with attractive Fiat livery) to an appealing advertising campaign, the Village on Tour (an itinerant initiative that visited the best known Italian seaside resorts in the Summer), right down to Jamaica House, a piece of Jamaica in the Turin Olympic Valleys where the team trained last Summer.
 

Sponsorship of the Jamaican Bobsleigh Team is an important part of Fiat’s strategy as a sponsor of Torino 2006, on a par with that of the Freestyle Team, made up of the strongest Italian snowboarders and freestyle skiers: snowboarders Giacomo Kratter, Tania Detomas and Simone Malusà, and freestylers Mattia Pegorari and Claudio Bosia. In the Summer the team was also made up of Piercarlo Ricasoli, a Kite-surfer, Nicola Bresciani, Italian surfing champion and Giorgio Zattoni, an internationally renowned skateboarder. The last member to join the team is Federico La Croce, one of Italy’s strongest Windsurf athletes. With the Freestyle Team, Fiat confidently entered the young, original world of freestyle skiing, from which it was but a small jump to the world of the skateboard. The Fiat Freestyle Team travels from one skatepark to another in an agile, nimble Fiat Idea 1.9 Multijet or a Grande Punto, both characterised by a youthful, dynamic logo and image.

The many initiatives organised include the Fiat S-Now!Park Winter sports village (open from November 18, 2005 to January 8, 2006 at the Vigorelli Velodrome, in the centre of Milan) and the recent O'Neill King of the Park, a freestyle event that attracted the best exponents of this speciality, and which was won by Giacomo Kratter, the flag-bearer of the Fiat Freestyle Team. The Fiat Freestyle Team project, the Fiat S-Now!Park and sponsorship of the Jamaican Bobsleigh Federation, have won Fiat a Special Mention at the Sponsorship Grand Prix.

Lancia Ice: elegance, class and harmony

If Lancia were an Olympic sport, it would certainly be figure skating. Because, like this sport, the brand embodies elegance, class and harmony. This similarity in style led to the creation of the “Lancia Ice” project, through which Lancia supports the Italian men’s and women’s Figure Skating teams.

Lancia has chosen Carolina Kostner as its testimonial, the young champion of the Italian skating team, who recently won third place at the World Championships, followed by another bronze medal at the European Figure Skating championships, held in Lyons, the first Italian to do so for more than 25 years. Carolina is paired with the Lancia Ypsilon, a car that is particularly popular with the female public who find numerous important values reflected in this car and in the athlete who represents it. To achieve success a champion skater must work hard, with discipline and preparation, just as the Ypsilon is the result of detailed research, design and technology.

The Carolina Kostner – Lancia Ypsilon duo was sealed last year when, for her eighteenth birthday, the athlete received a very special gift: a Casanova Light Blue Lancia Ypsilon. Lancia’s commitment and dedication to this sport were highlighted in September, when the brand organised the Lancia Ice Grand Gala at Turin’s Palavela, which will be the home of figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games.

The Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team

After the races of the World Cup, the Skiing World Championships and the extraordinary successes of Giorgio Rocca, the Alfa Romeo Ski Racing Team now debuts at the Torino 2006 XX Olympic Winter Games. The team is made up of the trainer Flavio Roda and supervisor Gustavo Thoeni and eight professional slalom, downhill and SuperG skiers: Giorgio Rocca, Kristian Ghedina, Massimiliano Blardone, Manfred Moelgg, Karen Putzer, Denise Karbon, and the sisters Elena and Nadia Fanchini. Real champions with experience in different fields, who share a love for challenges and competition: the characteristics that link them to the Alfa Romeo world.

As well as being present with its logo on the racing suits, Alfa Romeo also supplies the team’s official cars. These athletes are paired with the Alfa Crosswagon Q4, which is ready to accompany the team on and off the “piste”, thanks to the exclusive Q4 four-wheel drive system. This model marked Alfa Romeo’s return to the four-wheel drive market, and features the Q4 permanent four-wheel drive transmission, with three differentials and a torque delivery that favours the rear axle. To underline the bond between the Alfa Crosswagon Q4 and the Ski Racing Team, Alfa created “Impronta sportiva” (Sporting imprint), an advertising campaign that marked the symbiosis between Alfa Romeo and the world of skiing, celebrating the performance of engines and athletes, the car’s impeccable set-up on corners or the athlete who adjusts his balance on his skis, technology for total control and technique for perfect balance.

Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles, Official Sponsor of the Italian National Ice Hockey team

The Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles brand sponsors the athletes of the Italian men’s and women’s Ice Hockey teams. This is a spectacular sport that demands power, strength and speed: the same characteristics that are present in the genes of Fiat Light Commercial Vehicles. “New Fiat Doblò Cargo” was written on the sweaters worn by the Italian national team when they took on the strong Canadian team in December in a friendly match. The match inaugurated the “Pala Isozaki” stadium, a futuristic structure that will be the temple of Ice Hockey at the next Olympic Winter Games.

The New Fiat Doblò Cargo was recently voted “International Van of the Year 2006”. It is a title that rewards the important novelties on Fiat’s new light commercial vehicle: the elegant styling, the new engines (all Euro 4), the increased payload and the new Maxi version: 4 cubic metres, a load capacity of 850 kg, and a loading bay two metres long, a record for its category. The impression given by the two turbodiesel engines is excellent: the powerful 105 bhp 1.9 Multijet and the revolutionary 75 bhp 1.3 16v Multijet. The latter, a jewel of Fiat Auto engineering, has attracted a great deal of attention for the extraordinary performance it delivers with very low consumption figures: just 5.4 litres of fuel to travel 100 km.