Alaska Dispatch

The smiling Eskimo on the tails of all those Alaska Airlines jets crisscrossing the country might well be related to Olympic-bound Alaskan Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, but when it came time to make a big Olympic sponsorship deal the airline somehow overlooked the Yupik/Inupiat snowboarder from Girdwood in favor of big-name speedskater Apolo Ohno.

Out along the frozen banks of the Kuskokwim River in windswept Bethel, Michelle Sparck, herself part Yupi'k, wonders how that could happen. Not that Sparck is complaining. The lack of interest in Chythlook-Sifsof by the Seattle-based airline that carries the Alaska name presented Sparck with a prime marketing opportunity.

At the 2010 Olympic Games set to start in February in Vancouver, British Columbia, snowboarder Chythlook-Sifsof's helmet and gear will be sporting the logo of ArXotica, a company Sparck and her two sisters formed to produce and market a line of skincare products that feature exotic antioxidants harvested form the tundra of Western Alaska. The three sisters who spent their summers in the remote village of Chevak are trying to take the homeopathic treatments and skin conditioners of their ancestors into the world of socially responsible, high-end consumers.

It is a perfect pairing. ArXotic'a main product -- a Ciagg'luk -- is pronounced "chyt."

That Chythlook-Sifsof essentially volunteered her support to ArXotica is a blessing for the Sparcks sisters, but Michelle wishes there were more in it for the athlete. She understands better than most how far Chythlook-Sifsof had to travel from her childhood roots in the Bristol Bay village of Aleknagik to reach the XXI Winter Olympics. Not to mention how much the Chythlook-Sifsof family sacrificed to get her there.

"It's not as if we're doing her a favor,'' Michelle said. "She's doing us a favor."

Michelle believes Chythlook-Sifsof, who claims the fish processing company Ocean Beauty Seafoods as her only other significant partner, could have done a deal with Alaska Airlines that would have been financially good for both of them. A hook up between the airline with the Eskimo on its tail and a Yupik/Inupiat Eskimo boardercross racer from a remote corner of Alaska would seem a natural, she said.

Chythlook-Sifsof's mother and business manager Gloria Chythlook -- Glo to all her friends -- reportedly tried to make this pitch to Alaska Airlines, but couldn't even get a foot in the igloo, so to speak. Glo doesn't want to talk about it now. She said she likes Alaska Airlines, especially the people who work there.

As Callan has crisscrossed the globe to compete at various boardercross events in recent years, the Chythlook-Sifsof family has jetted in and out of Anchorage on Alaska Airlines so often family members are now sometimes recognized by flight crews. The Chythlook-Sifsof family, Glo said, has always found Alaska Airlines employees friendly and helpful.

Alaska Airline's ground crews in Denver, an airport Callan regularly visits on her way to training camps in Colorado, reportedly grew so fond of the family and were so impressed by Callan's story that they pitched airline headquaters back in Seattle on a sponsorship deal. Nothing ever came of it.

Friends say the Chythlook-Sifsofs were dismissed with the pronouncement that Alaska Airlines doesn't sponsor athletes, which strangely enough is almost exactly what the company's media-relations spokeswoman said when queried about Callan.

"Historically," spokeswoman Bobbie Egan e-mailed, "it hasn't been our practice to sponsor individual athletes."

Egan then went on to make a case for sponsoring Ohno, saying his deal -- now being marketed by Alaska Airlines as part of a "Follow Apolo" campaign -- "was an autonomous exception to this policy and and was done due to his world renowed athletic standing and his bid to become the most decorated Winter Olympian in U.S. history."

No doubt Ohno is unique. Then again, what can you say about Callan? How often does the airline with the Eskimo on its tail get a chance to form a relationship with an Olympic athlete with Eskimo blood and a compelling Alaska backstory?

Callan didn't get her start at some uppity ski resort with pricey lift tickets limiting access to the sons and daughters of the well-to-do. No, her first ski lift was a snowmobile with which her brother hauled her into the mountains behind their grandfather's home on the edge of wild Bristol Bay. She learned to snowboard down slopes and gullies visited more often by caribou and brown bears than people.

When it became obvious she had real talent, her parents made the decision to move to Girdwood and hook her up with coaches so she could pursue the dream of becoming a professional athlete. From there on, all it took was a lot of hard work on her part, a significant amount of family sacrifice, and a painful rehabilitation after a knee injury to pave the way to Vancouver.

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