P&G: Proud Sponsor of Mom’s – Raising an Olympian: Julie Chu – Thank You, Mom

http://youtu.be/V9PRlKSBj_E

I caught this sponsored video link posted on the Front Page of Yahoo! I swear I thought 8Asians had blogged about this amazing woman, but I can’t seem to find any specific posts on her. Chu is the first Asian American woman ever to represent the United States on the U.S. women’s ice hockey Olympic team – playing in Salt Lake City 2002, Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010 and will be the oldest American player at age 31 playing at Sochii.

P&G’s Bounty is coming with a series of Internet (and I assume television ads) for the upcoming Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games:

“Bounty’s “#Bring It” campaign is a part of a larger Procter & Gamble (P&G) program during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, titled “Thank You Mom,” which not only highlights the everyday journey athletes take to get to the Games, but celebrates the moms like Miriam Chu, who helped get them there. Growing up as an aspiring hockey player, Julie experienced first-hand how a family’s support, especially a mom who celebrates the messes in life, can help any child achieve their dreams. Now, together with Bounty, the Chus want to help encourage and ignite the passions within a new era of Olympians.”

Think how many Asian American boys or men you know who have played hockey? Now imagine an Asian American woman? When you think about it, Chu was the “Jeremy Lin” of sports before Jeremy Lin made it to the NBA (Chu plays professionally in Canada for the Montreal Stars.) Chu happened to have also gone to Harvard, winning the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2007 for best female collegiate hockey player as well as becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history (as well as all-time assists leader and obtained 284 points, the most in NCAA history).

Apparently, Chu has also been coaching the women’s hockey team at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Chu is hoping to finally win a gold medal, having won silver and bronze in the past Olympics.

I’m an uncle with two very young nieces and think it would be great if they wanted to play hockey, that they have a great role model to look up to should they ever want to pursue the same path as Julie Chu. Hopefully Chu can win the gold this year – as they don’t say, 4th time is a charm!