U.S. athlete Ashton Eaton won the Gold Medal in the decathlon Thursday, but the event has seen its “glory days faded,” which could impact Eaton’s post-Games marketing efforts, according to Greg Bishop of the N.Y. TIMES. When asked if he “expected millions in endorsements, he made a halfhearted fist pump and offered a meek ‘yeah,’ meaning, well, probably not.” Bishop notes Bryan Clay won the decathlon Gold at the ’08 Beijing Games, but Nike “later dropped him” from his endorsement deal. Bishop: “Gone were the ‘Dan and Dave’ advertising campaigns, even for gold medalists, the event’s long schedule not suitable for television, the point system difficult to explain and impossible for the average viewer to understand” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/10).
LESS OF LOLO? Premier Management Group President & CEO Evan Morgenstein said that he expects U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones’ marketing team to “’pull her back’ from media appearances in the immediate future.” Morgenstein, who does not rep Jones, said, “It’s not playing well on television, it's creating more heat. What they will probably do is pull her back from doing a lot of media and be very, very aware of what she’s Tweeting and immediately evaluate her opportunities.” However, Morgenstein sees Jones as a “top-10 potential ‘money earner’ coming out of the Olympics.” He said, “Very few athletes, male or female, in the lexicon of sports have ever been known by one name -- Pele, Beckham, Kobe. You say the name ‘Lolo’ and you know who she is” (FOXNEWS.com, 8/9).
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: FOXSPORTS.com’s Bill Reiter writes U.S. Gold Medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas is “winning and funny and authentic, both in her childlike sweetness and in the adult now emerging with a directness and mature way of handling all these things” (FOXSPORTS.com, 8/10).
