King of Shaves entrepreneur to sponsor British Olympic hopeful

Entrepreneur Will King has agreed to sponsor athlete James Ellington for the London 2012 Olympic Games after he failed to secure backing through an appeal on eBay. 

Will King, founder of shaving brand King of Shaves, first spotted on Twitter that Ellington, who will be competing in the 100m and 200m at the Games, sought sponsorship by auctioning himself through eBay.

The athlete received a £32,000 bid but it turned out to be fake so King stepped in and agreed to cover all of Ellington's expenses.

King said: "We backed Kristan Bromley and Shelley Rudman in the 2006 Winter Olympics at Torino in bob skeleton when they were in dire need of funding; Shelley famously slid to a superb silver so when I heard James was struggling to raise funds and go for gold, I was delighted to get King of Shaves involved as part of our forthcoming 'Wingman' project supporting people and businesses with winning potential." 

This sponsorship deal, and others to be announced over the coming months, builds on King of Shaves' Young Blades athletes initiative that ran between 2004 and 2010.

In 2007, King of Shaves sponsored James Sheppard in Powerboat P1 who went on to become world champion. In 2010, the company supported Jon Beeby who walked across the USA in 80 days to raise funds for charity.