U.S. Gold medal-winning wrestler Rulon Gardner has
signed a rep deal with TX-based Suttle Advisors for contract
negotiations, product endorsements, marketing, financial
planning and media and PR (Suttle). Gardner appeared on the
"Late Show" with David Letterman Friday and read the "Top
Ten Cool Things About Winning An Olympic Gold Medal." Among
highlights: No. 10) Make you most impressive person at any
party, unless Marion Jones shoes up; No. 7) You can get,
like, $100 bucks for it on eBay; No. 5) The instant marriage
proposal from Darva Conger; No. 2) Finally I have an excuse
for why I've been rolling around on the floor with guys for
the past 20 years; 1) No tie? No problem (CBS, 10/6).
THE WATERLINE: In AZ, Glen Creno wrote that U.S. Gold
medal-winning swimmer Misty Hyman was offered $16,000 to
appear on a Wheaties box, but Hyman "rejected the money" so
she could continue to compete for Stanford Univ. Meanwhile,
U.S. Gold medal-winning swimmer Gary Hall Jr., a diabetic,
recently inked a deal with Johnson & Johnson "to promote a
blood glucose monitor" (AZ REPUBLIC, 10/8)....Australian
Gold medal-winning swimmer Ian Thorpe has "ambitions to
star" in NBC's "Friends." Thorpe's agent, Dave Flaskas,
said that Australian model Elle McPherson, who has appeared
in a cameo role on the show, has "offered to help" Thorpe
"achieve his acting goal" (REUTERS, 10/8).
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE: Magic Johnson, on the U.S. men's
basketball team in Sydney: "I don't know if they thought it
was going to be easy or if they just said, 'We're going to
show up and be the [U.S.] and that's going to get us over.'
... I was embarrassed" ("Late Show," 10/6). HSI's Emanuel
Hudson, who represents three of the four members of the U.S.
men's 4x100 Olympic relay team, spoke with Jim Rome about
the team's behavior in Sydney: "The Games have become an
entertainment industry, and to say that the way that [they]
held the flag was somehow desecration to the flag, I think,
is a little beyond the scope of reality." SI's Rick Reilly,
on the behavior of the track athletes: "I don't think they
crossed the line, I think they spit on it, kicked it around
with their foot and stamped on it. ... Here are these jokers
making a mockery [of the flag]. You really wonder if they
even know how they disgraced their nation." Reilly, on
sprinter Maurice Greene sticking out his tongue after the
race: "I guarantee you, Emanuel, the only endorsement you're
going to get for him now is for tongue depressors." Hudson:
"There's no question in my mind that these young men were
not aware of the extent of what they were doing and how it
played on TV" ("Last Word," FSN, 10/6).
