FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 8, 2016

 

MEDIA CONTACT

Codi Warren

Managing Director of Communications

E: cwarren@softball.org

P: (405) 425-3431

 

ASA/USA Softball announces nutritional supplements partnership with Thorne Research

 

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Amateur Softball Association (ASA)/USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball (NGB) in the United States, announced today its first ever nutritional supplements partnership with Thorne Research.  As its exclusive nutritional supplement partner, Thorne Research will provide members of the USA Softball National Teams with safe and effective nutritional supplements to support their health, while offering discounted products to ASA/USA Softball members.

 

“Our partnership with Thorne Research is an example of a new era because it allows us to offer the highest quality line of nutritional supplements to our membership and highest performing athletes alike while having access to state-of-the art health-related educational resources as well,” said ASA/USA Softball Managing Director of Marketing Stacey Hepp. “The fact that Thorne works so closely with the Mayo Clinic and has been vetted by the U.S. Olympic Committee gives us great comfort in building our partnership with Thorne.”

 

As part of the partnership, Thorne Research will provide USA Softball athletes with products that have the highest level of certification, baseline nutritional level testing through WellnessFX, educational materials, and risk protection. In addition, athletes will have access to reliable health information from Mayo Clinic, which has been compiled for easy access on the Thorne Research website.  This content will help athletes evaluate supplement usage and understanding of supplement labels, manufacturing, and regulations, all provided by an objective resource.

 

“We are very excited to have Thorne Research as our partner for our athlete’s wellness program,” said USA Softball Women’s National Team Head Coach Ken Eriksen.  “With a high performance program being developed following the announcement of softball’s inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Thorne’s product line gives USA Softball some great options for our nutritional needs.”

 

Members of the USA Softball Women’s National Team (WNT) have already begun utilizing Thorne’s nutritional supplements, such as amino acid and electrolyte dietary supplements and whey protein isolates.  Members of the USA Softball WNT also received one-on-one instruction from Thorne’s Director of Sports Performance, Tom Pazdernik, on utilizing Thorne’s products for maximum efficiency.  

 

"I am so excited for our partnership with Thorne," added USA Softball Women's National Team athlete Valerie Arioto.  "Thorne's products will help us elevate our play today and keep us on our game in the process of training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics!"

 

Thorne Research is very familiar with the NGB world, having recently inked partnerships with USA Gymnastics, USA Rugby, USA Triathlon, USRowing, USA Pentathlon, USA Fencing, and USA Taekwondo.  Spurred by athletes’ desire to use nutritional supplements, coupled with the fear that those supplements might cause them to test positive for banned substances, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) three years ago began a vetting process in search of a product line that it could recommend to competitors.  It landed on Thorne, then worked with the company on a program that it could offer to the NGBs.  USOC dieticians worked with Thorne to determine which of the company’s more than 400 products would be submitted to the NSF Certified for Sport® program and then be made available to athletes.  A product that is NSF Certified for Sport® is guaranteed to be free of all substances that are banned in the United States and internationally.  Six such products will be available initially — including an amino acid complex, a fish oil product, and a vitamin D supplement — with the product line expanding to 25 by January.

 

“We are honored that USA Softball has chosen to partner with us to help provide safe and proven nutritional supplements to contribute to the well-being of the competitive and elite athletes in the sport,” said Paul Jacobson, CEO of Thorne Research.  “Major advances in the development, research, and monitoring of nutritional supplements have enabled us to provide safe, clean supplements that are scientifically formulated, made with rigorously studied and clinically researched ingredients, and are NSF Certified for Sport for softball.”

 

One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, ASA/USA Softball serves as the NGB for softball to the United States Olympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).  ASA/USA Softball also conducts over 100 National Championships each year and registers over 165,000 teams annually.  On an annual basis, ASA/USA Softball also conducts over 80,000 background checks on coaches and personnel who surround the game while educating over 25,000 ACE (Achieve, Certify, Educate) coaches. ASA/USA Softball is also known for having the most highly trained softball umpires in the sport.

 

For more on Thorne Research, visit usa-softball.thorne.com. 

 

About ASA/USA Softball 
Founded in 1933, the Amateur Softball Association (ASA)/USA Softball is the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, ASA/USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 165,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2.2 million.  ASA/USA is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won 10 World Championship titles as well as claimed eight World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about ASA/USA Softball, please visit http://www.asausasoftball.com/.

 

About Thorne Research, Inc.

Thorne Research is a personalized health solutions company dedicated to improving individual outcomes through science and technology. For 30 years, Thorne Research has led the nutritional supplement industry in providing researched-based, high-quality natural products, including foundational vitamins and minerals, therapeutic-focused nutritional supplements, and soon to include botanical drugs. By leveraging cutting-edge research and personalized data through affiliate WellnessFX, Thorne Research offers customized preventive health solutions for health-care practitioners, their patients, and athletes. Thorne Research is a majority shareholder in WellnessFX, a San Francisco-based personalized wellness company providing home kit testing and actionable recommendations from the analysis of blood chemistry, genetics, and microbiome.

 

Thorne Research is headquartered in New York City, with a manufacturing facility in Sandpoint, Idaho. Further information on Thorne Research is available at Thorne.com

 

 

Codi Warren I Managing Director of Communications

Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball

2801 NE 50th Street

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73111
405-425-3431 (O)

Visit Us Online: ASAUSASoftball.com

Play #USASoftball, where Olympic journey’s begin, at http://bit.ly/1DATKkq!