Christine Ohuruogu (pictured), the Olympic 400 metres champion, has quit Linford Christie's management company to work with Vero Communications, the firm founded by Mike Lee, who worked on London 2012.
The 25-year-old Londoner had been with Christie's Nuff Respect company since making her breakthrough five years ago when she qualified unexpectedly for the 2004 Olympics in Athens having previously been an international netball player.
But her reputation had suffered badly after being banned for a year in 2006 following a series of missed out-of-competition drugs tests.
She returned in 2007 to win the 400m at the World Championships in Osaka and then repeated her victory in Beijing a year later.
But negative headlines continued to dog her and many within the sport feared that working with Christie, a convicted drugs cheat having tested positive for anabolic steroids in 1999, was harming her reputation.
Ohuruogu said: “With the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Berlin this is a very important year for me and I am looking forward to defending my title.
"Vero Communications have an excellent reputation in the industry and a great track record of helping clients achieve their goals.
"I am delighted to be working with them and look forward to our partnership because communications will play an important role for me this year and in the lead up to London 2012.
“The Vero team have a real understanding of what motivates me as an athlete and great insights and ideas about how to bring this to life from a media perspective.
"While my focus at the moment is training and preparing for the Championships, I am very excited by the prospect of injecting new energy into my communications and commercial activities and connecting with my fans in innovative and exciting ways.”
Vero will work on a communications strategy, media relations and profiling Ohuruogu nationally and internationally while Ricky Simms, of Pace Sports Management, will continue to arrange her race schedule.
Ohuruogu was widely predicted to become the face of the 2012 Olympics after her victory in the 400m at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 because she lives less than a mile from the site of the main Olympic Stadium in Stratford and her multi-ethnic background, which includes parents from Nigeria.
Vero, led by Lee (pictured), the communications director of London 2012 during the capital's successful bid, will be aiming to restore Ohuruogu's reputation and help her exploit her commercial potential in the build-up to London 2012.
It is the first time that they have worked with such a high-profile athlete on an individual basis.
Lee said: “We are honoured to be working with an outstanding athlete like Christine whose commitment and determination are an inspiration to us all.
"We are confident that this, coupled with our experience in delivering successful communications strategies and campaigns, will make this a very interesting and fruitful partnership.
"We are also very excited by the natural opportunities that may arise between our existing clients and Christine and feel that our uniquely experienced team will deliver great results.”
Simms said: “Our principal aim at Pace is to help talented athletes achieve their true potential and in my discussions with the Vero team, felt that our companies share the professionalism and integrity that is necessary to achieve this with Christine.
"I look forward to our collaboration with Vero and believe that their blend of experience, strong networks in the industry and thorough understanding of communications campaigns and sponsorship, particularly in the Olympic realm, will be real assets for Christine moving forward.”
