Olympic Champion Sues Former Sponsor

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) - Olympic gold medal skier Ashleigh McIvor claims in court that a juice company abandoned a $45,000 endorsement deal just after she was injured while training for the Winter X Games.

McIvor sued YJ Sciences, in British Columbia Supreme Court.

McIvor, who won a gold medal for Canada in the 2010 Olympics ski cross, says she inked a deal with YJ Sciences when the company was known as One World Network (OWN) in November 2010.

The company agreed to sponsor her as a "paid ambassador" for its "YouthJuice" product, according to the complaint.

McIvor claims the company agreed to pay her $10,000 upon completion of a photo shoot, and the $35,000 balance in $5,000 installments from January 2011 through July 2011.

During a training run for the Winter X Games in January 2011, however, McIvor says, she was injured and "although McIvor remained ready and willing to continue to perform her obligations under the Agreement, OWN appeared to lose interest in the agreement and in McIvor."

She claims YJ abandoned the deal in April 2011 after her agent and then her lawyers demanded that it make good on the deal.

McIvor claims YJ paid her nothing even though it benefited "by its public use of McIvor's name and image and associating those with OWN and OWN's products."

McIvor is represented by Mike Wagner, with Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy, in Vancouver.

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