Since the 2024 Paris Olympics got underway, the eyes of the world have been trained on the thousands of competing athletes.
Whether it is Team USA gymnast Simone Biles defying the laws of gravity, local French hero Leon Marchand swimming his way into the record books, or Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec going viral for his nonchalant approach to shooting, seldom do they experience this level of attention.
Biles is an exception to that, however, with celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Kendall Jenner flocking to Paris to watch her in action, and a successful Netflix documentary in her name.
There is already a narrative around whether she will choose to compete in Los Angeles, where she will be 31 years old.
But plenty of others will be looking to maximise their new-found profile to generate commercial income and avoid being forgotten about ahead of an Olympics in the United States. The LA Games will be supercharged from a branding and marketing standpoint.
Only a handful of Olympic athletes in recent years have truly broken into the mainstream and sustained it.
Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time — winning 28 medals between 2004 and 2016 — and Usain Bolt, who holds the world record of 9.58secs in the 100m sprint, have transcended their respective sports. Biles has too.
The next athletes most likely to join the handful of stars who were able to maximise their success away from the competition are France’s Marchand and Noah Lyles, the American winner of the men’s 100m final.
Phelps is one of few athletes to transcend their sport (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Lyles, not long after winning his gold medal on Sunday night, was already talking about wanting his own shoe. “I’m dead serious,” Lyles said. “I want a sneaker, ain’t no money in spikes. There’s money in sneakers.”
Marchand, 22, is France’s hero after four gold medals and one bronze. He already has a partnership with Omega and was involved in a Louis Vuitton campaign before the Olympics started.
But he can now significantly elevate his profile in time for Los Angeles in 2028. Many think that could be the most marketable and profitable Olympics from an athlete’s standpoint.
That, though, is often easier said than done.
Peter Carlisle, the managing director of the Olympics and Action Sports division at Octagon, and long-time agent of Phelps, has more experience than most when it comes to elevating an athlete’s profile.
“Results dictate the ease with which you commercialise your athletic career and how you sustain that when that platform goes away and comes back in four years,” Carlisle tells The Athletic.
“You need to have a plan coming out of the Games. Only then will you know what the story is, how they did, the reception and how the different markets are putting it out there.
“At that point, you have to make decisions very quickly. 24 hours after an athlete is done, we have a team that starts to maximise exposure aligned with whatever the hope is to build the bridge to the next Games.”
Olympians do not earn vast sums of money compared to NFL and Premier League stars. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee rewards its gold medalists $37,500, with silver medalists being paid $22,500 and bronze medalists receiving $15,000.
That means athletes have to boost their income through commercial partners. The highest-profile competitors sign long-term multi-million dollar deals. At the other end of the scale, a $40,000-a-year deal can be life-changing for some athletes.
According to Forbes, an American magazine that ranks how much athletes earn, Biles generated $7.1million in 2023, with only $100,000 of that figure attributed to prize money. This places her in a tie for 16th place on the list.
Biles has a deal with Athleta (Marcus Ingram/Getty Images for Athleta)
Biles was the only gymnast to make Forbes’ top 20 last year. She has agreements with United Airlines, Visa, Athleta, GK Elite and, among others, haircare brand K18. In 2021, Biles dropped Nike as a sponsor in favour of Athleta.
Brand deals with athletes are not always linked to performance, either, nor, in Carlisle’s cases, will they include clauses that require the athlete to compete at an Olympics.
Biles, who is part of Octagon’s roster of athletes, is also due to embark on a multi-state tour in the U.S., named Gold Over America — accompanied by other gymnasts including Team USA’s Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles.
Heading on tour is a tried and tested way to maintain relevance and helps capitalise on the buzz an athlete can generate during the Games.
“Michael Phelps went into Athens in 2004, before he had won a gold medal, with more corporate partners, more magazine covers in the US than any other Olympian, and then he had the performance he had,” Carlisle adds.
“The exposure wasn’t a challenge at that point. The challenge is that people are going to move onto the NFL. We set up a national tour and got it sponsored by Disney, Cadillac and Hilton and got USA Swimming as a partner. It got him to 13 different states from the East Coast to the West Coast and on national and regional media.”
An 11-year-old Katie Ledecky, now a Team USA swimmer who has won nine Olympic gold medals, met Phelps at one of his post-Games tour swimming events. But between Athens and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Carlisle and Phelps laid groundwork to build a different level of profile.
Phelps on tour in China (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)
Carlisle explains: “I feared Michael was going to roll into Beijing as one of the marauding Americans and it was silly. We wanted to make him marketable in this really significant market.
“We deliberately made it a priority to set up a partnership with an Asian company that would allow for Michael to set foot in China. We wanted him to develop a rapport with the local media and organisations over there. We did that in 2005, and then we did it every year after that. You can’t just be on TV; you have to be there.”
For Marchand, the coming days will no doubt be full of media appearances in France — but what he does next may go some way to determining whether he can continue building his profile ahead of Los Angeles.
“He is the perfect example of the Olympic Games amplifying athletes,” explains Hugo Jafari, the founder & CEO of Ignite Sports Management, which represents some of Team GB’s leading athletes.
“He has been such a big name in the swimming world, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to really have that burst, and that is what an Olympic Games can do.
“They (Marchand’s team) need to be using that sporting profile as a nucleus, but to build into it in other areas. Phelps, for example, they went into different investment spaces.
“It’s a time where strategy is really important. Each partnership will need to be strategic and feed into their long-term goal.”
Jafari noted that Biles will be on “long-term multi-million dollar deals”, which he indicates is “more likely to follow” for Marchand on the back of Paris 2024.
“Demand allows you to request higher fees and within those partnerships start negotiating what the activation budget is going to look like and where you are going to be seen,” Jafari said.
Carlisle believes the LA Olympics is going to be a “huge commercial opportunity” for athletes, but also noted it will be difficult for those coming to compete from other countries to maximise the money that is there to be made from branding deals.
Marchand has an opportunity ahead of the LA Games (Mathilde Kaczkowski/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
That is why he thinks Marchand, whose parents are both former swimmers, should not wait until 2028 to build his platform in the United States. The 22-year-old is coached by Bob Bowman, Phelps’ former coach, and enrolled in college at Arizona State University.
Carlisle adds: “He could show up in America three months from now and would he be recognised? Would mainstream media be interested in him? I’m not saying no, but that is a question.
“If I were trying to come up with some sort of game plan… you need to understand what his connections to the US market are, and what his interests are outside of swimming.
“One thing I think is super cool about Leon is that he went to America and trained under Bob at ASU, but I understand that education was a priority for him; it wasn’t just about training under Bob.
“Some of the most important discussions I had about Michael were ones that I didn’t care about the fee. If you focus on the money in the short term, then you can make it, but in the end, it won’t be sustainable. If you view them as partners and build and control your exposure, then you can harvest more lucrative opportunities later.”
Carlisle and Jafari note there is a balance to be struck when prioritising strategic long-term deals over short-term gains.
The quick financial hits on the back of a successful Games can come via speaking events and appearances. Mainstream TV shows, such as Strictly Come Dancing in the UK and Dancing with the Stars in the U.S., are another way to pocket a fee and boost popularity.
Team GB swimmer Tom Dean will take part in Strictly later this year — the ninth British swimmer to appear on the show. Book deals are also often signed after an Olympics.
Greg Rutherford, who won gold in the long jump for Team GB at London 2012, was mocked for the number of TV appearances he made following his triumph.
“I’m not poor,” he told the Daily Telegraph in 2013. “I’d be lying if I said I was. But if people believe that the reason I go on TV is because I love the sound of my own voice, that is completely and utterly wrong.
Rutherford on Dancing On Ice (Kate Green/Getty Images)
“Range Rover gave me a lease car that I can drive for free, which is amazing, and Omega gave me a watch.
“That’s all fantastic, and there have been some free clothes here and there, but ultimately it doesn’t put food on the table, so you are in a scenario where you are forced to do promotions and appearances.”
Jafari explains: “There will be agents who want to snap at quick deals, and there might be athletes who want to do the same, but long-term strategy is so important.
“Each brand has different objectives. Some are very dependent on each financial year and it is difficult for them to predict long-term strategies in line with us.
“There aren’t as many of those four-year partnerships that you’d expect, though. Of the 327 Team GB athletes that have gone to the Games, you are probably looking at 10 to 30 max who can really enjoy the market space there. They are the ones at the top end or with a uniquely different angle.
“You can be the best athlete in your discipline in the world, peak at the Olympic Games, but still not get that commercial revenue one might say you deserve. You need to be more than just an athlete that performs well.”
Jafari and Carlisle are already working towards LA. Talks for 2028 are already taking place in Paris.
“When you get to the LA Games, you will have non-rights holders activating with athletes on a scale we haven’t seen before,” predicts Carlisle.
“The LA Games can present a unique opportunity for an athlete, where, let’s say, they can make $40,000 in a year, with the stipend they can get, that means they are able to train in a way they weren’t previously able to and without having to worry about a job.”
And although the Paris Olympics is yet to reach its conclusion, there will be many athletes heading home hoping to capitalise on the buzz around their performance and sport, with agencies working towards keeping them relevant over the next four years.
The multi-million-dollar deals can take “years” to negotiate, Carlisle says, but even if they are few and far between at the moment, the prospect of a company being associated with LA 2028 could lead to bigger contracts and better fees.
(Top image: Dan Goldfarb for The Athletic, Photo: Getty; Oli SCARFF / AFP)
