RECORD
OLYMPIC B ID
USA
Softball has record bid for VIP experience with Women's National Team
"There were two outs,
two strikes and a ball on the way to plate," said Nygren, of
The auction was a
collaboration between USA Softball and usolympicteam.com, the official web site
of the U.S. Olympic Team. Proceeds go to benefit USA Softball and the USOC's
Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere (FLAME) program.
Nygren's winning bid was a
gift for his softball-playing daughter Haley, who turns 15 today. Nygren entered
a last-minute bidding war for the one-of-a-kind experience to meet the gold
medalists from Sydney, as well as take batting practice and infield with the
team at their Jan. 10-11 camp at the ARCO U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula
Vista, Calif. The competitiveness of the auction saw the final bid amount
increase more than $4,000 in the final four minutes of the 10-day auction.
"This is a reward for
the hundreds of thousands of pitches and lonely hours my daughter has spent
playing softball," said Nygren, who coaches his daughter's team. "This
is your All-American kid. I was looking for a birthday present (on eBay) and
found this. I thought it was a scam. Then, I saw it was from the U.S. Olympic
Committee. I said, 'My goodness, this is for real.'"
The Nygren family has a
close connection with the women's softball team and star slugger Stacey Nuveman.
Haley's team is even called "Stacey's Stars." According to Nygren,
Nuveman is even set to call tonight to wish Haley congratulations. Haley is a
freshman at Stanton College Prep in
The final minutes of the
auction held the same type of pressure of that of a batter standing at the plate
to try and win the game.
"My initial limit I set
for myself was $1,400," Nygren said. "At the very end I was refreshing
my screen every 20 seconds, then all heck broke loose. I had a decent bid in
there already, so I started typing and hitting enter. Before I could even see
another screen, he (the competive bidder) is doing the same thing. I felt a
little sick, because I thought I lost, but I scrolled down and saw my name that
I won. Did I have a heart attack when I realized how much money it was?
Sure."
The auction breaks the
previous best auction total from usolympicteam.com of a $5,900 winner for an
experience to meet and skate with speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno earlier this
year. In other auctions closing, an experience to dive with gold-medal winner
Laura Wilkinson closed at $2,950, a luge experience to slide on the Olympic
track for $2,000 and an experience to learn to curl at the curling world
championships closed at $886.
More auctions will be
available on usolympicteam.com prior to the holidays and continuing throughout
the year.