To my mind, the Olympics gold medal award for the Decathlon is perhaps one of the most prestigious by virtue of the fact that this athlete has to perform in ten different disciplines over a few days. One would expect that given the technical requirements of that sport, the winner would be a recognized icon for sports promotion and endorsements. And yet, the story of Bryan Clay featured here, who won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics shows that the endorsement power of decathletes is certainly below that of leading swimmers and sprinters.
It is appreciable that the economic circumstances obviously call for corporate caution in taking out new faces for endorsements, I am perplexed by the differential ability of sports disciplines to attract vastly different commercial interests and endorsements. The economists who study sports are probably able to tell pretty quickly why this is so, but I will try and understand why the gold medal for the Decathlon is much less valuable as compared to that of sprinters.
So which Olympics sports discipline has the least commercial value for an Olympics champion. Is it my favourite shooting, rowing or gymnastics? Whatever it may be, I think that recognition of the intelligence, strain and effort in becoming an Olympics decathlete is undervalued. Why?
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