Recently in Swimming Category
Although swimming may not be at the centerstage of sports in this country, once every four years, swimming takes the country by storm at the Olympic Games. This past summer Olympics in Beijing, a feat was completed that has never been accomplished in the history of the Olympics. Michael Phelps, a swimmer from Baltimore, won eight gold medals competiting in five individual events, and three relays. The one difference from this Olympics that was like no other was the introduction of new technology in the swim suits that the swimmers were participating in. Speedo has always been at the top of the line for competitive swimwear, and this year was no difference. The LZR Racer was introduced right before the games, and it had a huge impact. Simply put, 94% of the medals were won wearing these new "supersuits," and 23 of 25 world records were broken in the LZR. These are astonishing numbers to try and wrap your head around. Never has a suit been so dominant in the amount of success swimmers get from it. This raises the question, why? The LZR is composed of a light-weight woven fabric, and has polyurethane panels that are strategically placed on certain parts of the suit. Speedo even went to NASA for help, in which they used fluid flow analysis to make the suit as efficient as possible. Studies showed that the suit allowed swimmers to be 5% more efficient with their oxygen intake, which is the most important aspect of swimming. The suit was also the first suit to ever not have seams, with the suit being litterally "lazered" together. With the suit passing all the FINA regulation tests, everything seemed to be fine.
Fast-foward to the 2009 World Championships. Michael Phelps had been caught smoking marijuana in a picture, and he had taken a long break from his sport. In a shocking turn of events, Phelps lost one of his signature races, the 200 free, to a virtually unknown swimmer from Germany named Paul Biedermann. Biedermann smashed Phelps world record in beating Phelps by over a second. Shock ran through the swimming world, as people questioned how this was possible. Phelps coach, Bob Bowman, had an answer. He claimed that Biedermann's suit was basically cheating and enabled him to beat Phelps. What Bowman was talking about was the new line of suits from European companies, most notably Jakked and Arena. Both companies released suits right before world championships that were composed of all polyutherane. Polyutherane is an extremely buoyant material, which many say makes swimmers sit higher in the water, thus making them go faster. After the meet, FINA took action. Their new rules stated that "suits must be made of only "textile fabrics." They can be natural or synthetic yarns that can be weaved, knit or braided to make the suit's material." There are also new buoyancy and absorbency standards, in addition to the fact that males can no longer wear suits that go past the navel or knees, and females can no longer wear suits that go past the shoulders or knees. These new rule changes were extremely important for the sport, and set a lot of companies back. Speedo is still challenging the ruling that the LZR is illegal.
Michael Phelps is a superstar within the United States and around the world after his unheard of 8 gold medals at the Olympic games. Before he became a superstar along with his swim team years ago they were signed to a promote a protein powder that was new to the market. They were all younger and unknown at the time just like the company. Now that they are all big stars in the world they must still continue to honor their promotion contract with this hardly known company and will be making close to no money off of it. I doubt Phelps really cares that much being now he is making over $50 million in promotions due to the national hero he became after the Olympics. This protein company known as PureSport certainly lucked out, and now may be able to make a name for itself having these celebrity figures endorse its product. This company has the chance to make itself known by riding its endorsement deal on some of the most well known people swimmers in the world.
Sports Business Journal is reporting that Olympic athletes, swimmers in particular, are in desperate search of endorsements. Big time companies are unwilling to sign new endorsees and do not want to spend money on big time deals during this economic dow
nfall. Many companies simply do not have the money to spend on famous faces to sell their products. This comes as a surprise to many because of the record setting ratings and level of interest that the Beijing Games generated.
Instead of companies like Tyr swimming and Speedo going out and spending money on new faces to sell their products, they are simply sitting around waiting for the economy to get better. With faces like Phelps, Lezak and Torres, you would think these companies would jump on these guys to help sell their swimwear. Maybe if they spent a little money, record breaking athletes could bring in record breaking revenue. Maybe Michael Phelps could use his Gold medals and pull out another miracle to save the Olympics.
It seems that all of that talk during the Olympics about Michael Phelps' endorsement potential is finally beginning to take shape. Kellogg's is among the first in what I'm sure will be a long line of companies to cash in on the fame and fortune that comes with the world's largest TV audience. It gets even better... Kellogg's has pledged $250,000 to the Michael Phelps Foundation. Phelps started the foundation with the $1 million bonus that he received from Speedo for tying Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals. Not too shabby.
From sportsbusinessdaily.com (registration/subscription required)
Kellogg Co. has unveiled the special-edition packaging featuring U.S. Gold Medal-winning swimmer Michael Phelps that will appear on boxes of Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Club Crackers and Rice Krispies Treats Marshmallow Squares in the U.S. beginning this week. The packaging will depict some of Phelps' signature moments from the Beijing Games. Meanwhile, Kellogg's Corporate Citizenship Fund has pledged $250,000 to the Michael Phelps Foundation (Kellogg Co.). Phelps: "My friends were joking with me, asking, 'So you're going to be (on cereal boxes) with Tony the Tiger?' I said 'Yup.' Pretty cool" (Baltimore SUN, 9/26). In Baltimore, Elizabeth Large wrote, "I can see why you'd want Phelps on your box of Frosted Flakes, to encourage the little tykes who hero-worship him to buy your breakfast cereal. But Club Crackers?" (BALTIMORESUN.com, 9/25).
