AIV - The Project

With all the experience I managed to gain from professional sport together with my studies in Great Britain at Coventry, I designed a project for short, medium and long term. The main objective is to change the attitude towards professional sports and alpine skiing in Romania. Another objective would be promoting alpine skiing as a whole, being a relatively easy sport for all ages. My project is based on three main ideas:

1. Developing my Brand: AIV
2. Raising the popularity of alpine skiing in Brasov
3. The importance of “Dual Education”: sport and study

Devolping the Brand

For the beginning, alongside my partner who handles marketing and communication, I would like to integrate all the communication and social media at one’s disposal. Until now Facebook and the Blog, continuing with Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia and so on. The first point of this strategy aims to create a solid and well positioned picture for the athlete Ioan Valeriu Achiriloaie trough the brand AIV. The second would be to cover as good as possible the entire season, with personalized messages for all the segments we wish to transmit. Last but not least would be to create a visual identity for the brand AIV. The main objective of this brand would be to explore the marketing opportunities for the “product” Achiriloaie Ioan Valeriu in order to draw important stakeholders to be part of the project. We wish to be capable to offer benefits for our partners which would in turn help them with accomplishing their own objectives. 

Alongside with the points we listed above, we also wish to work consistently with a community of journalists and TV Stations, newspapers and websites who would spread our message.

Raising the popularity of alpine skiing in Brasov

Here it is vital to have a good working relationship between more entities from the city of Brasov  and the brand AIV. An important role in this endeavor is held by the club ASC Corona Brasov, the city hall of Brasov in addition to many companies from the region of Brasov who are in the field of sports, particularly winter sports. There is a lot of potential, talking about  a city which has 3-4 months of full winter and a High School of Sports (Liceul cu Program Sportiv) who has great tradition in professional sport.

To sum up, we are bringing the “know how” regarding the phenomenon and the other partners will create an opportunity to promote skiing, both the professionally and otherwise. The first step for this will be creating a campaign on my blog with the title “You know you’re a skier when…”.

The importance of “Dual Education”

A very important theme today at a European level is “Dual Education”. As I mentioned before, my time at Coventry University radically changed my vision regarding professional sports and life in general.

I firmly believe in this concept: professional sports and higher education. Because in Romania there is a big difference between sports and study, there is a big opportunity for a project to promote both of the themes in the same place. Through my example I strongly believe we can change mentalities and draw the attention to a problem of the outmost urgency in Romania: what do I do after I finish my sport career? A collaboration between the education institutes from Romania and AIV can transmit the importance of this ideas directly to the ones who are implicated, with a relatively small cost for all stakeholders.

#AIV #theproject #blizzard #OG2018

Follow our journey through the 2016 season!

FB: https://www.facebook.com/AIV.Speed

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ioan_Valeriu
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aivspeed/

National Championships 15-16

THE CALL. Every year in Romania we have a Alpine National Championship. It is not a FIS race which means it means nothing to the world ranking, just to the ranking inside the country. It was the end of March when the organizing committee found a place to host it. As per usual, the problem was the lack of snow. My season was over. Just one week before I crashed in France at the British National Champs. I get a call from my club in Romania, Corona Brasov. They were letting me know the National Champs were on and they asked me if I am willing to go. I told them ok, I will try, but I can’t promise anything because of the state of my ankle. No worries. I packed the car and started driving.

THE WAY. As some of you may know, when you have a swollen ankle it’s best to keep it up as much as possible right in the aftermath of an incident. You can imagine I could not do that whilst driving so of course my ankle got bigger and bigger. Oh and there was a case of a “small” accident on the way in Romania with just a few kilometers to go. I was stopped there for a few hours. Shit happens. Anyway after I started moving I realized it was too late for me to go on and my ankle was getting dangerously big. So big I was worried that I can’t even get my boot on anymore. I stopped at a hotel about 1 hour away from the venue (Voineasa-Transalpina resort). Got in the room, tried my boot on. No chance. Let’s not panic. I would try to get some sleep keep the leg up and try again tomorrow. Done and done. No chance. It was clear I could not race that day. It was slalom on Monday and giant slalom on Tuesday. The slalom was no chance. I was lucky enough to have a good friend close by in Deva (I had to drive back) who spoke to a doctor for help. Once there I told him to do whatever he needs to do so I can race the next day. Whatever he asked? Whatever. He got the needle out and injected me there and then. In 30 minutes my ankle was almost like normal. Started driving again and Monday in the afternoon I was there. The funny thing is that after all this trouble I heard some people that none of this happened and I stopped I don’t know where and did I don’t know what, not wanting to make it there on purpose. Cute. Of course none of them had the guts to say this to my face. But I have no problems. There will always be haters :*.  

THE RACE. Giant Slalom. Not exactly my discipline (I have to specify here for those of you who don’t know that my disciplines Super-G and Downhill are never held in Romania for a series of reasons: too dangerous, not enough protection nets etc.) but I was confident. The absolute favorite was,of course, Alexandru Barbu. Those are his disciplines, the “technical” disciplines, Giant Slalom and Slalom (mostly because he is as brave as a little kitten). Surprisingly first run finished with me in front. My ankle was not the best for sure but I felt I did a pretty good job, whilst Alex made quite a costly mistake. In the second run I hit a hole with my bad ankle (of course, it had to be that one) and the last 15 gates were absolute torture. Somebody even told me you could clearly see that I was skiing only on one leg. The final result was Alex came in 1^st, I was 2^nd and our good friend a colleague Claudiu Tudoran from Predeal came 3^rd. I was happy with the result (considering) and was happy to be there. 

THE PLACE. It was the first time skiing at Transalpina resort. I must say I heard a lot of good and bad things about that place and honestly I did not know what to expect. Seeing it for myself I can tell you it is a very nice place to go skiing and I would go there again anytime. For more informations click HERE. I also had the pleasure to meet Marius Fodor and Ramona Fodor, the people who are running the place. Thanks to them for helping us with hosting the National Championships. Without them for sure none of this would be possible, they are greatly appreciated.

THE SUPPORT. Sometimes when you are skiing internationally you forget that even if you do not have so many fans in other countries, the home support is always there, watching. I was “brutally” reminded when a “mob” of 10 kids recognized me and “attacked” me. They are the future ski stars from CSS Petrosani and I hope I will see them racing till the very top. The potential is surely there. I have to say…when they were there on the slope yelling after me, running towards me and fighting over who would hug me first, it’s one of the best feelings in ever had. They think I did them a favor by sitting, chatting and tanking pictures with them when it is actually the other way around. The feeling I got right there and then is the feeling that it is driving me every morning to wake up and go train, regardless of what time and season it is. I thank them and I promise I will be the best possible role model I can be. I hope I can show them a good way and I would be happy if one day anyone of them can surpass me and beat all my records. Thank you kids. You give me strength. 

ROGER BIBU...nu Federer

      Astăzi doresc să prezint lucrul de care sunt poate cel mai mândru de când m-am reapucat de acest sport numit schi alpin. În acel moment aproape nimeni nu credea in mine și în cariera mea de sportiv. Am auzit (cu o singură excepție) numai cuvinte de genul: pentru ce? Nu încerca. Nu are rost. Nu ajungi nicăieri. Pe mulți dintre acești oameni am reusit să îi aduc alături de mine între timp. Este adevărat că între timp s-ar putea să fi pierdut pe unul dintre ei, dar nu e problema. O să îl fac sa creadă din nou în mine cât de curând .

     De atunci am avut parte de alte surprize. Oameni pe care nu îi cunosc personal vin la mine cu intenția de a mă ajuta (până acum mai mult spiritual, dar e bine și asta. Ce este în mână nu-i minciună. Îl cheamă Roger Bibu. Povestea este lungă, dar o fac scurtă: a venit la mine, s-a prezentat, mi-a spus că ar dori să mă ajute pe partea de Marketing/Media/Comunicare. Vreau să subliniez ceva: cu toate că mă gândeam la o asemenea persoană, a venit ea la mine. Incă o dovada că legea atracției funcționează.

     Pot să spun că între timp eu și Roger suntem prieteni buni și sunt convins că acei oameni care mă urmăresc au putut să vadă o schimbare în modul de abordare a postărilor de pe rețelele de socializare, respectiv de pe blog. Consider că el este o parte foarte importantă la ceea ce îmi doresc eu să fac/să ajung. Pe această cale aș dorii să îi mulțumesc oficial pentru că este alături de mine. Nu te voi dezamăgi!

ROGER BIBU....not Federer

       Today I would like to write to you about one of the things I am most proud of since my return in this sport. When I started (or re-started) alpine skiing again there was almost nobody who was supporting me to do it. Well, as the story goes, I turned a lot of people 180 degrees in my favor. People that said I have no chance. Recently I feel like a lost a important one, but he’ll believe again soon. I’ll make him.

      Along the way I had some other surprises. People who I do not know personally are coming to join my cause. This is what this article is about. His name: Roger Bibu. Long story short, he came, presented himself to me, said he wanted to help me with the Marketing/Media/Communication part of things. Again, he came to me. I was thinking about him, but I did not know who “he” or “she” would be. Another proof that the law of attraction works.

      I can say in the meantime that Roger and I became good friends and I am sure that those of you who follow me could see a change in the way I approach things on the internet/media. I consider him to be invaluable for my future and I would like to take this time to officially thank him for joining me. I will not let you down!

The right choice – Deux Alpes

The new season has officially started for me. In the same place where my last season ended. France. Imagine that…Euro 2016 underway and I am here skiing. Not the slightest interest to go see a game. Love (for your own sport) does that to people J. 

            Let me tell you a little bit about who I came with. Actually who I skied with because I came alone. In Brasov and in the Romanian ski world (and not only) the name Mihai Bara is quite a heavy one. I had the pleasure of meeting him only this year when he came to Romania, after a friend gave me his phone number. He is working in the Andorran ski sport since 20 years ago. I heard a lot of nice things about him…not only from Romania but also from other people. I gave him a call, we met, and 1 month later I am skiing with him in France.

            In the past month since my big change I often wondered if I made the right choice. After 6 days of skiing with Mihai Bara I destroyed any little doubt I might have had. I learned a lot and I remembered what it is like to ski with pleasure. From run to run things are getting better and I can feel that. Without flattering him, I will tell you what I told him: I never felt so good on skis as I feel now. The training camp was a complete success and I hope I will get the chance to work with Mihai and Ruben (the other coach of their team) again soon. I am also happy because I met a group of great kids who I fell can really go places and do well in the sport.

            That being said I have some meetings in Austria for some meetings regarding skiing and some of my actual / potential future partners.

All the best.

AIV