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Michael Phelps sports the purple circles left from "cupping," a Chinese medical technique.
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And just like that, the Olympics have created a new medical business opportunity.
Sunday night, swimmer Michael Phelps started an internet sensation with the wine-colored marks all over his exposed skin as he helped the U.S. men win the 4x100M freestyle relay. The marks were caused by “cupping,” a Chinese medical tactic of relieving muscle stress by creating suction on the skin with plastic or glass cups.
By mid-day, news sites across the country were writing about the treatment, discussing its origins, medical effectiveness and evolution from eastern medicine to sports science. But nobody could say who actually makes the cups, and they appear to be essentially un-marketed in the U.S.
“I couldn’t tell you the name of the company that’s on the packaging or the boxes we have,” said Ralph Reiff, executive director of Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Sport Performance, who was director of athlete care for the 1996 Atlanta Games. He’s in Rio working as an official provider for USA Gymnastics, Track & Field and Diving. “I’ve never really paid attention to who makes them or why that particular device,” he continued. “Obviously some entrepreneur could perhaps change that over the next couple years.”
When asked where they get their cups, swimmer Cody Miller said: “Amazon.” Dana Vollmer jumped in: “You can get a set for $20 on Amazon.”
The top two hits when you search “cupping” on Amazon are a $15 set made by Kangzhu, a Chinese firm, and a $35 set made by South Korean conglomerate Hansol. Efforts to reach both companies were not immediately successful.
“We’ve never had anyone knock on our door and say, ‘Here’s the best, here’s the type you ought to be using,’” Reiff said.
The overnight emergence of a new sports medicine technology at the Summer Games is reminiscent of the 2008 Beijing Games, which introduced the world to kinesiology tape. At the time, trainers and physicians knew of the treatment but used generic tape or whatever their office happened to come across. A few months later, marketer Jim Jenson founded KT Health and began building the KT Tape brand. Today it’s in 35,000 U.S. store locations and sponsors several Olympic governing bodies. It’s also a licensee of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
