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SPORTS / TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
OLYMPICS
Corporate sponsors shower winners with endorsements
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Apolo Ohno, the most decorated winter Olympian in U.S. history, is cashing in on more than medals. He has racked up sponsorships from Coca-Cola, Vick's, Omega, Alaska Airlines and the Washington State Potato Commission.
But while Ohno has skated and danced his way to wealth, other Olympic athletes still live with their parents and struggle to get by, working when they can and selling space on their gear to any sponsor who sees their potential.
Ohno's bronze medal Saturday in the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating event was his seventh Winter Olympics medal - a record for an American.
And he could walk away from Vancouver with deals worth millions of dollars. Since the Games began, he has begun endorsing luxury Omega watches, and other sponsors may follow soon, especially if he strikes gold in his remaining races.
"Apolo is one of the big stories of the Games, and if he makes history, the number of inquiries we can expect to get would be in the hundreds," said Peter Carlisle, a managing director of Octagon,
sports marketingagent. A gold medal often seals the deal.
"You can set everything up, but oftentimes it takes that moment for people to see the effect he has on
the general public and to act upon it." Carlisle said.
Airlines, painted his image on a Boeing 737.
A handful of other top American athletes at the Vancouver Games, such as alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and snowboarder Shaun White,
have transcended their sports inomainstream commercial success.
Yet for most athletes, the Olympics is a chance moment to gain recognition and attract sponsors, is
Ohno has a Hollywood agent,
and his biggest sponsor, Alaska
"The one real big opportunity to make endorsement money, they don't allow."
fleeting at best. That's particularly true for the Winter Games, where some sports are quite obscure and the events attract a smaller television audience than the Summer Games.
"Over that two-week period they are very relevant, but then it can evaporate very quickly..."
"Most Olympic athletes, even if they have a huge amount of success at the Games where they are the story, it's still very challenging because the public was introduced to that athlete only a couple of weeks or months before the Games," Carlisle said. "Over that two-week period they are very relevant, but then it can evaporate very quickly because you lose that platform to be out there in front of that audience."
SCOTT MACARTNEY
Alpine skier
PETER CARLISLE Managing director of Octagon
Macartney is one of the athletes featured in Comcast's Local Heroes program to help raise money for Seattle-area Olympians.
the names of their sponsors during competition.
Even in the Olympic spotlight, one of the biggest chances to make money by advertising before a large U.S. audience is lost, said Scott Macartney, an alpine skier from Redmond.
Wash., and member of the U.S. Ski Team. The Olympics technically is for amateurs, so athletes can't wear
which provided some valuable exposure in promotions, he said. But the billboards had to be taken down during the Olympics, when advertising is reserved for official
sponsors.
"When you watch the Olympics you don't see any sponsors," Macartney said. "The one real big opportunity to make endorsement money, they don't allow."
U. S. athletes support themselves mostly with endorsements, and among skiers only about the top 10 or 15 in each discipline can make a good living, he said. The U.S. team pays for coaching, travel and lodging, and the athletes foot the rest.
Macartney regularly sells the real estate to U.S. companies trying to get exposure in Europe, where his ski races are televised.
The U.S. audience sees ski racing every four years during the Winter Olympics. Even then, only the best athletes are shown on television.
Success can change the life of an Olympic athlete dramatically.
In one season Macartney, now 32, went from living with his parents to paying off his student loans and making a down payment on his first house.
"If you ski fast, you get on one kind of podium and can make $50,000 in a day," he said. "The athlete in that race who gets 10th doesn't make anything."
JSAS Apollo Anton Ohno reacts on the podium after winning the bronze medal for the men 1000m short track skating competition, during the flower ceremony, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BASEBALL
Baseball season begins, Texas looks to remain on the top
Though several good teams are up to bat, it's unclear who will step up to win the title
BY ANDREW HAMMOND
ahmmond@kansan.com
twitter.com/ahammadriostar
With basketball hitting the home stretch and football gearing up for spring practices, the Big 12 welcomes baseball back for the 2010 season. The Texas Longhorns look to repeat their victory as Big 12 Champions on their quest to return to the College World Series in Omaha, but this season there are several teams looking to step up. Four South Division teams surround Kansas while a majority of teams in the North are bringing up the rear.
TEXAS (50-16-1)
The Skinny: The Longhorns return 19 lettermen and four starting pitchers from a team that finished on top of the Big 12 standings and made it all the way to
the College World Series final last season.
in the countr.
He went 4-0 last season in
the College
World Series
with a 2.55
MLB Bound: Taylor Jungmann is one of the best young pitchers
ERA. He was placed in the preseason All American second team.
Series Of Note: Houston College
Classic (March 5-7, key game:
Texas vs. Rice, March 5)
KANSAS (39-24)
The Skinny: The Jayhawks return a solid pitching staff, veteran infielders and Tony Thompson, one of the best players in the country. The Jayhawks seem to have improved from a league-leading 11 conference victories at home and making an appearance in the
NCAA tournament.
MLB Bound: Despite Thompson's injury,he remains one
of the best players in the country. He won the Triple Crown in the conference with a league leading 21
home runs, 82 RBIs and .389 batting average.
Series of Note: At Louisiana State University (March 10-12)
TEXAS A&M (37-24)
The Skinny: Coach Rob Childress returns a team that competed in the NCAA Tournament a
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year ago and is looking to make a Super Regional for the fourth time since 2004. The Aggies resembled
Jekyll and Hyde last season during
conference play as they were 10-2 at home in College Station, but were 4-11 on the road.
MLB Bound: Joe Patterson led the team with a .386 batting average and 52 RBI. He will need to provide that kind of power once again as the Aggies were seventh in batting overall in the conference.
Series of Note: At Kansas (April 1-3)
OKLAHOMA (43-20)
The Skinny: After a disappointing loss to Arkansas at home in the NCAA Tournament, the Sooners
look to challenge Texas after finishing in second place in the Big 12. Sonny Golloway returns 14 players from last year while 19 newcomers will strap
MLB Bound: J.R. Robinson made 23 appearances and was second in games with seven starts. Ryan Duke coming out of the bullpen will help the Sooners in late game situations as he led the conference in saves with 16.
on the crimson and cream jerseys.
Series Of Note: Oklahoma vs.
Oklahoma State (May 7-9)
The Skinny: The Cowboys have a 23-8 record when they entered into Big 12 conference play last season. They finished with a record
OKLAHOMA STATE (34-24)
of 9-16 in the conference,
but that was still enough to get the Cowboys in the field of 64.
MLB Bound: Tyler Lyons passed up an opportunity with the New York Yankees to anchor the Oklahoma State pitching staff. Lyons pitched nearly 100 innings with 97.1 total last season and was tied on top of the team leaders with 7 wins.
Series of Note: At Kansas State (March 26-28)
BAYLOR (30-26)
The Skinny: The Bears were a
force at home as they went 20-12. But toward the end of the season, they had a late 10-game slide. It was ignored by the selection committee, and they barely got in the tournament.
MLB Bound: Logan Verrett had
strikeouts in only 54.1 innings on the mound. Verrett was also able to garner an invite to Team USA baseball trials.
Series of Note: Baylor vs. Duke and Georgia (Feb. 19-21)
KANSAS STATE (43-18-1)
The Skinny; The Wildcats surprised everyone a year ago after being picked ninth in the preseason coaches poll and finishing fourth at the end of the season. Coach Brad Hill returns 10 starters
and is looking to capitalize off the successful season that saw the Wildcats to the NCAA
Tournament for the first time in school history.
MLB Bound: Adam Muenster was a key cog for the Wildcats a year ago and will once again be key to their success this season. He broke the single season record with 59 hits and 24 stolen bases.
Series of Note: At Oklahoma State (April 9-11)
NEBRASKA (25-28-1)
The Skinny: The Cornhuskers were in an unfamiliar place in May. For the first time in nine seasons, Nebraska did not make the NCAA
Your nomenat.
However, it may have an opportunity to improve with 19 returning lettermen including
Tyler Farst, an All Big 12 selection from a year ago.
Series of Note: Nebraska vs. Oklahoma (March 26-28)
MLB Bound: Leading the Cornhuskers in home runs and RBIs, Adam Bailey passed up an opportunity from the New York Yankees to return and help guide the team back to the postseason.
MISSOURI (35-27)
The Skinny: The Tigers will have a new look on the infield with only returning one starter, Michael
Libero. Last year, he started 59 games at shortstop.
Hitting-wise,
the Tigers
were abyssal, finishing dead last in the conference with a .272 average and a .405 slugging percentage.
MLB Bound: Aaron Senne comes back with seven total home runs and will supply the power with one of the deadliest bats in all of college baseball. Senne has been drafted twice and could go in the first rounds in the 2010 MLB Draft.
Series Of Note: At Kansas (May 7-9)
TEXAS TECH (25-32)
The Skinny: The Red Raiders is looking to make some noise in a very talented Big 12 conference. If Texas wants to be successful this season, it will have to improve
its pitching staff,
which was dead last in the conference last year with a 6.31 team ERA.
MLB Brond:
After gaining an honorable mention in the Big 12 last season, Chad Bettis will be a figurehead in the Red Raiders success, as he returns with a team high 77.2 innings pitched. If Bettis pitches well, things may look up for the Red Raiders.
Series of Note: At Oklahoma St.
(Apr. 9-11)
Edited by Kate Larrabee and Anna Archibald