Tapper ‘Shakes’ it up with new endorsement deal
Published:Thursday | October 14, 2021 | 12:09 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Megan Tapper says the addition of a new corporate partner is the perfect financial boost as she begins her road to next year’s World Athletic Championships.
Tapper, 27, signed a three-year deal with nutrition drink brand TruShake as their newest brand ambassador yesterday, as she prepares to start her pre-season. After an eventful summer that saw her return home from the Tokyo Olympics with Jamaica’s first Olympic medal in the women’s sprint hurdles, Tapper says that she is motivated to return to work with gratitude to her new corporate partner.
“It means a lot,” Tapper told The Gleaner. “As an athlete, you need as much support as possible and TruShake will not only support in the obvious way in terms of cash, but kind as well, which is very important to the health of an athlete and the diet of an athlete.
“So I am really happy and really grateful that I have this opportunity to partner with such an amazing brand.”
THE RIGHT BALANCE
After her bronze medal performance in Tokyo in August, Tapper finished in the top three in the last four meets she ran to close the 2021 season. With the intent of splitting her training locations between Jamaica and Austria, Tapper says that she intends to get the balance right to achieve the required results on her road to the Championships in Oregon.
“None of us can tell the future, we can only plan as best as possible and work with what we have as best as possible. So that is what we are going to do,” Tapper said.
“I rested enough and now it is back to training, back to the hard work. I’m looking forward to putting in all that needs to be put in to get the results, at the national trials first, and then Oregon.”
With that mindset, Tapper says that, while the target will always be championship medals, her immediate concern is improvement on her form and building on the work done last season.
“The plan is always to just get better and be better,” she said. “You can’t really focus on anything else because you don’t control anything else. So, for me, it’s just to go to each training session with the mindset to say ‘Okay, I did this last week Monday. Let me get it this way this week Monday’ and to continue like that.”
“Oregon and National trials will be the complete icing on the cake, but the main goal for Megan is to just be better and to get better.”