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For the next eight years, Usana Health Sciences will provide health supplements and nutritional products to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) athletes.

South Korean speedskaters, both long- and short-track, also will benefit from sponsorship agreements announced Thursday by the West Valley City-based company.

The partnerships were revealed amid much fanfare during Usana's International Convention, which nearly filled EnergySolutions Arena's lower bowl with roughly 6,000 direct-sales associates. The meeting continues through Saturday.

Sponsorship terms were not disclosed.

"Usana is pushing the envelope in innovative products," said Troy Flanagan, director of the USSA's high performance program, adding he is intrigued by what can be accomplished when his organization's physiologists and sports scientists put their brains together with Usana's product-development team.

And just as the company will help skiers, snowboarders and freestyle athletes to maximize their performances as the USSA's official vitamin, supplement and minerals partner, Flanagan pledged to Usana sales associates that "information we develop we will share with you. You'll enhance our performance and we'll enhance yours."

Dan Macuga, Usana's vice president of marketing, called the partnership a "natural fit." Athletes are extremely careful about the supplements they take, he noted, so they need assurance that their suppliers' manufacturing processes are impeccable.

To that end, Flanagan said he was most impressed during a tour of Usana's spacious facility in West Valley City.

"We demand 100 percent purity and manufacturing to be of the highest standard," he said. "I was blown away by the quality control and the quality of [Usana's] products."

Usana's support was hailed by athletes who appeared on stage or in film clips.

Lindsey Van and Jessica Jerome, Park City women who hope to be on the U.S. team when women's ski jumping makes its Olympic debut in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, said their dreams would not be possible without help from sponsors such as Usana.

"Without the help of supporters and sponsors, we couldn't make it to the level where we're at today," said Jerome.

Athlete endorsers included Canadian Jennifer Heil, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in moguls skiing. After she finished fourth at the 2002 Winter Games, she knew that "if I was going to live my dream of winning an Olympic gold medal, I would not only have to work harder but smarter. … To get to the top, to stay at the top, I had to focus on my health regime. Usana helped me to be my best when it mattered most."

Adding the USSA and the South Korean speedskating teams to what he called "Team Usana," Macuga predicted company-sponsored athletes (including Kearns-based U.S. speedskaters) will win more Olympic medals in Sochi than any individual country.

Macuga added that supporting the Koreans is consistent with Usana's identity. "We are a global company," he said. "This is a worldwide story we want to share."

mikeg@sltrib.comTwitter: @sltribmikeg —

Pumping people up

Tennis great Billie Jean King was one of the motivational speakers who addressed Usana's sales associates Thursday. The list of speakers also included Rudy Ruettiger, the former Notre Dame football player who inspired the movie, 'Rudy."