From Charleston Chew to Swedish Fish, the 2024 Summer time Olympics have worldwide taste, because of Ellis Dawson. You possibly can even say he’s a Life Saver for Workforce USA.
It’s possible you’ll not know Dawson’s identify, however he has gained notoriety amongst Olympic viewers for his position because the “sweet man.” Sure, Dawson has been noticed hauling sweet to provide out to members of america males’s basketball workforce. He’s additionally accountable for uniforms and different issues, however he says sweet is the massive job.
“That is crucial factor for our guys,” he stated on TODAY on Aug. 1. “Certainly one of my roles is simply to guarantee that we now have every part prepared.”
Dawson stated Daybreak Staley, who coached the ladies’s workforce to gold on the postponed 2020 Summer time Olympics in Tokyo, loves Werther’s Unique, however he didn’t single out which sweet is LeBron James’ favourite.
“He sort of varies,” he stated. “He sort of goes together with his mode and his temper.”
Dawson went viral July 31 after he was featured in a quick video on NBC Sports activities’ TikTok carrying Tupperware containers stuffed with sweet, together with a Ziploc crammed with sweets throughout the U.S. males’s basketball workforce’s victory over South Sudan.
“USA basketball’s sweet man is the hero we didn’t know we wanted,” the clip was captioned.
“The place was this place on profession day?” somebody joked within the feedback, whereas a number of different folks famous his resemblance to “Bob the Cap Catcher,” a person who went viral for retrieving a swim cap throughout the ladies’s 100-meter breaststroke preliminary race July 28.
A New Mexico native who has labored with the NBA’s Orlando Magic, Dawson is a stalwart of USA Basketball, having labored for the group since 2005 when he was introduced on as a supervisor of aggressive applications. In 2009, he was promoted to assistant director, nationwide workforce operations and is at present listed as director, nationwide groups operations.
“As assistant director, nationwide workforce operations, Dawson assists in all sides of the boys’s and girls’s aggressive applications, together with participant personnel and basketball operations throughout trials, coaching camps and competitions,” his biography on the USA Basketball web site reads.
“Moreover, he assists with the workforce outfitting; coordinates attire stock and video gear; maintains the USA Basketball video library; in addition to assists in coordinating the USA Basketball Officers Program.”