It’s less of a leap than you might think.
Fifteen years after his star turn at the 1984 Olympic Games, Mitch Gaylord has joined the promotion industry as director of new business development at PremiereGroup, Redondo Beach, CA.
Since those Olympics, where he nabbed one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals and became the first American gymnast to score a perfect 10, Gaylord has worked as a movie actor, a TV talk-show host, and a motivational speaker on the corporate-lecture circuit.
“My topic is the power of focus. I draw on stories from the Olympics, what it means to achieve success at a young age, and how to make the transition from that to a normal life,” says the 38-year-old Gaylord, a father of three.
Gaylord had a starring role in Columbia Pictures’ American Anthem, hosted his own TV show called Fan Club for one season. He’s also been a TV spokesman for products including the Torso Track exerciser on the Home Shopping Network.
Gaylord landed at PremiereGroup through a meeting with partner and creative director Roger Lockwood, who met him at a celebrity sports event for which the agency had designed the brochure. “Mitch is a real smart individual with a lot of personal drive and ambition,” says Lockwood, noting that Gaylord’s background in TV and sports events should give him a running start at the job.
Gaylord will maintain a limited schedule of speaking engagements as a business-building tactic, and act as account executive on any new business he pulls in, according to Lockwood.
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