After the Games, they will now have to control their fame and income. Having become famous for their performance or their physique, Thomas Ceccon, Stephen Nedoroscik or others “internet boyfriends» are now bombarded with loving messages and business proposals.
There are his medals, of course: gold in the 100-meter backstroke, won on Monday, July 29, and bronze in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. But there is also his physique, and especially his abs, which have made many Internet users’ hearts skip a beat. With his bulging muscles and green eyes, Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon has become one of the sex symbols of the Paris Olympics. At 23, the athlete must now deal with a newfound celebrity, as his Instagram account has jumped from some 97,000 subscribers to nearly 800,000 in two weeks.
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“I didn’t expect it. It’s becoming more difficult to manage, both on social media and in real life,” he confided to our colleagues at Wall Street Journal . Difficult but perhaps profitable, as brands are eager to ride the wave of this new celebrity. “We receive a lot of requests, we have to wait for the storm to die down because it’s too much for the moment,” sighs Francesca Ramasso, agent at Dao Sport in charge of Thomas Ceccon’s image.
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From crush to cash?
Like him, other athletes beloved by the public are discovering the weight of public attention and could take advantage of it. We heard the French swimmer Léon Marchand, four gold medalists and one bronze, one of the stars of these Games, confide that he was well aware that his life was going to change and that he was going to have to adapt to his new fame. The German Leo Neugebauer, silver medalist on August 3 in the decathlon, is enjoying dazzling success, in particular due to his advantageous physique. Which sometimes takes precedence over performance.
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As for the French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati, eliminated at 5.70 meters after dropping the bar. Because of his leg, experts assure, because of the size of his penis, Internet users prefer to decide. The video of the jump, which immediately went viral, fueled all the fantasies. To the point of pushing Daryn Parker, vice-president of CamSoda, a pornographic site, to offer Anthony Ammirati 250,000 dollars (229,000 euros) to make a one-hour video – an offer outlined by the athlete. In another register, the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç, 51, gold medalist after shooting with one hand in his pocket and only earplugs for equipment, was judged “sexiest man in the world” by many Internet users.
Athletes, pop culture characters
But it’s not just rock-solid abs that make fans’ hearts skip a beat. Some athletes have become famous in no time for their humor, like Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, known as the “muffin man» as he has played up his love of Olympic Village cakes. American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik was compared to Clark Kent after he took off his glasses before jumping on the pommel horse – and winning two bronze medals. “I scroll through TikTok and I see myself, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ It’s crazy,” he tells our colleagues at Wall Street Journal.
Here too, brands are not indifferent to this sudden light. Stephen Nedoroscik’s agent says he is overwhelmed with proposals for collaborations from clothing, games or… eyewear brands. “Many of them don’t even have a campaign in mind, they just ask us: ‘What can we do together?'” he explains. A lot, judging by the few figures available. The International Olympic Committee has estimated the revenue from partnerships signed by athletes at $1.34 billion (€1.22 billion). That’s a 60% increase compared to the 2020 Tokyo Games. Enough to make athletes dream of skyrocketing incomes… or give them the desire to retrain. Like Thomas Ceccon, who doesn’t rule out modeling later. After retirement?
