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Olympians at this summer’s Paris 2024 Games aren’t just racking up medals — some are becoming viral sensations online, creating buzz for the sports or hard luxury brands that sponsor them, and readying themselves for potential further deals from fashion and beauty players.
Interest in the Olympics is booming, too. Viewership is up across the games, according to Adobe Analytics and Nielsen, who tracked NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms, and found viewership up 79 per cent on 2021’s Tokyo Games. With no in-person audience in the midst of the pandemic, the Tokyo Games were especially quiet. This new viewership is also in part due to the new personalities creating buzz on social media, brand experts agree.
Unexpected moments
Some viral moments are accidental; like South Korean shooter Kim Ye-ji, who won gold for the 25-metre pistol shooting (and doesn’t have Instagram or TikTok), went viral on Instagram and TikTok last week and has been covered by scores of media titles since, including The New York Times, Dazed, The Guardian, Vogue and GQ. The latter named her “the Olympics’s first breakout style star”, because of her unique specialist eye equipment and serious, “ice cold” demeanour. Ye-ji doesn’t have a sponsor currently, but after drawing such buzz, is likely to attract brand attention ahead of Los Angeles 2028.
Stephen Nedoroscik, a USA gymnast, went viral online after he was captured on the sidelines of the men’s team exercises with his eyes closed. The ‘Pommel Horse Guy’ became one of the most-memed athletes of the games, with TikToks about the bespectacled athlete and his hyper-specific skill racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
In swimming, French swimmer Léon Marchand has gone viral on TikTok during the games, following his four gold medal wins. The athlete doesn’t have a TikTok account, but 76.7 million videos mention him on the platform, as users re-share his winning performances, his podium moment and his various out-of-pool appearances, while celebrating his achievement or his looks. “Is he single? Asking for a friend,” a TikTok user commented on one video (the comment received over a thousand likes).
Omega is the official timekeeper of the games, and also sponsors Marchand. “With Léon, we knew he was going to be huge at Paris 2024,” says Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. Fellow Omega ambassador Michael Phelps confirmed he would be one to watch, Aeschlimann says. Marchand went on to break Phelps’s 400-metre record during his gold medal winning race.
Like Marchand, Italian swimmer and gold medallist Thomas Ceccon has become another heart-throb of the games, and has gone viral on TikTok for his swimming achievements and appearance during Paris 2024, despite not posting his own content on the platform. There’s currently 50.7 million videos mentioning the athlete on TikTok, while scores of media outlets have reported on him taking an afternoon nap outside of the Olympic village. One compilation of the athlete swimming and on the podiums, simply captioned “thank me later” with a series of cheeky emojis, reached over five million views.
“The feeling around those guys is so joyful. With Léon and Thomas, and all our ambassadors, the Omega team is gathering around TV screens for every final and we’re cheering so loudly… We’re touched by that emotion,” Aeschlimann says.
While athletes from sports like track and field and gymnastics have always driven buzz, brands also expect the unexpected with the new generation — and are investing in a breadth of sports and athletes to pre-empt the rise of new athletes and sports. “At Nike, there’s moments that I think we as a brand have either prepared for, or we knew were going to happen. When it comes to gymnastics for example, we were expecting it [Nike sponsors gold medal winning Team USA],” says Tanya Hvizdak, VP of global women’s sports marketing at Nike. “I think what makes the Olympics so special is the ones that you’re just not prepared for. Women’s rugby has been amazing, for example.”
Women’s rugby has soared on social media, thanks in part to Team USA women’s rugby player Ilona Maher, who won bronze with her team. Maher began posting on TikTok during the postponed Tokyo 2021 Olympics, giving audiences insight into the audience-free pandemic games and the Olympic village. But during Paris 2024, the athlete has gone viral, gaining millions of followers across Instagram (now three million) and TikTok (now 2.2 million followers and 119.7 million likes).
Maher has posted on TikTok comparing the Olympic village to the Love Island villa (one of these videos garnered 19.2 million views), sharing her daily routines, discussing body positivity, meeting other athletes like Simone Biles or showing off her Ralph Lauren-sponsored Team USA fits. Ralph Lauren sponsors the whole of Team USA, and so far is the only brand Maher has posted about; but, with her penchant for dressing up and wearing lipstick, the athlete is primed for deals on and off the pitch.
“The best thing about the Olympics is, everyone discovers the sports and athletes that they didn’t even know they were going to love, like women’s rugby,” says Kerryn Foster, VP and general manager of specialist sports at Adidas, who is responsible for the brand’s Olympics strategy and spoke with Vogue Business at the Adidas athlete house, a temporary space set up for athletes to relax, eat nutritious food, get physio or kit alterations, and create content during the games.
This is reflected in the television viewership too, she says. “For Adidas, we’ve been involved with rugby and women’s rugby for 25 years. So to now have this upswing in engagement is fantastic.” Off the back of their success, the USA women’s rugby team secured a $4 million investment from entrepreneur Michele Kang towards the LA Games in 2028. Kang owns Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and London City Lionesses women’s football clubs.
Athletes that use social media to show off their personalities stand out in the games themselves. “Suni Lee is another example of an athlete who could potentially sit in the shadow of Simone Biles, who is the undeniable Usain Bolt of these games. But her ability to harness social media and cultivate her own brand has enabled her to grow to 2.7 million followers on TikTok alone,” says Alex Greenwood, co-founder of sports collective In Motion, referencing Lee’s on-trend TikTok content that has fetched upwards of 40 million views per post.
Biles’s gymnastics teammate Jordan Chiles, a Nike athlete, has risen to fame this Olympics for her bold leotard choices (some based on Beyoncé costumes), long manicured nails and her TikTok videos. She’s hit over 10 million likes on the platform, posting dances with her teammates, behind-the-scenes content, #GRWM videos and more. “Athletes like Jordan go viral authentically through their voice. I think that is the thing that helps us cut through the noise,” says Nike’s Hvizdak. “I think that is the best representation. Our plan and our hope is just to celebrate her and celebrate sport through her.”
Beauty has become a major topic in Olympic athlete content. But whether it’s Maher’s lipstick, Chiles’s grills and makeup, Biles’s tooth gems and goat necklace, or Sha’Carri Richardson’s encrusted nails, athletes are showing their multifaceted personas with their beauty and fashion at these games.
In response to the growth of Olympics beauty, brands like Adidas and Nike have introduced beauty stations in their athlete houses, from barbers to nail technicians and makeup artists, to help athletes feel their best and facilitate content centred around their beauty looks. The Olympics is also slowly attracting fashion and lifestyle labels, from Jacquemus x Nike (which featured in the Nike athlete house) to Skims, who released an Olympics campaign in July featuring a group of athletes including Lee, track and field sprinters Gabby Thomas and Fred Kerley, swimmers Jessica Long and Caeleb Dressel, and runner-soccer player Nick Mayhugh. As the games draw to a close, fashion and beauty brands could benefit from tie-ins with this year’s athletes, who’ve built such resonance all summer.
To truly cultivate success from athlete partnerships, it’s important to focus on more than just performance. “We’re tracking medals just like everybody else, looking at where our contracted athletes are on the podium or how many times the ‘swoosh’ is showing up for us as it pertains to athletes,” says Hvizdak. “But in my role, I think it’s equally as important in regards to how our athletes feel served from the qualitative aspect. Are we showing up for them? From a consumer lens, do consumers see themselves in our brand? Our athletes are our greatest connection point to them. So it’s important our consumers feel connected to them.”
The key is to engage with rising talent early in their careers, brands agree. Omega is connected with Olympians from their earliest years, Aeschlimann says. “This allows us to build strong relationships and connect with the stars of the future… Everyone wants athletes when they become famous. But is that authentic? For Omega, it’s not just about scouting talent when they’re young. It’s about creating friendships. If you support them all the way through their careers, during all the highs and lows, it creates a mutual respect, and most importantly, an authentic relationship. Omega has many long-term ambassadors in sport, and it’s exactly for this reason.”
A new Olympics fever
With these viral stars, brands are feeling the halo effect, and Olympics engagement is growing. “We’re seeing athletes post behind the scenes, but also post their real emotions about their sport, the real ups and downs, challenges and triumphs. That’s why I think the Olympics are more engaging than ever today,” says Adidas’s Foster. Adidas sponsors 850 athletes across the games, spanning the breadth of sports, including track and field gold medallist Noah Lyles, diving gold medallist Tom Daley and gymnastics (floor) gold medallist Rebeca Rodrigues de Andrade.
Historically, it hasn t been easy for athletes to showcase their personality and project their own narrative throughout the tournament. “The Olympics have had really buttoned-up rules and regulations around athlete representation and media training,” explains Holly Gilbertson, managing partner at sport-specialist creative consultancy Pacer, referencing the controversial ‘Rule 40’ regulations. Such rules are used to govern the way in which athletes (and their sponsors) can use their image and once meant that athletes couldn’t post performance pictures to social media during a ‘blackout period’ just prior and during the games. However, recent rule changes tied in with TikTok’s explosion means “there’s so many more ways for athletes to reach out and connect with audiences”, says Gilbertson.
For brands, athletes showing their personality outside of their sport is just as important as their performance, says Hvizdak. “For sure, performance is a key aspect of what we’re looking for. But it’s definitely the holistic approach in regards to the athlete portfolio. Who they are outside of the arena gives us additional things to lean into,” she says. “It’s not just about the Olympics, it’s the journey. It’s the things outside of the sport as well. It’s the stories; it’s that human connection that’s so riveting. That’s why you have no idea what’s going to happen, but I believe those athlete stories are why you’re seeing such an increase in viewership right now.”
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