Just over 6 months after the Beijing Olympics Jason Lezak has been left out to dry with no corporate sponsorships. Lezak as well as Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen among others were all sponsored by Nike but since Nike has pulled out of competition swim wear they are all left without a swim suit contract. Mind you Nike still does make practice suits and other swim equipment they've yet to renew any of the swimmers contracts.
Dealing another blow to Lezak and other swimmers is the recession has cut into the motivational speakers circuit Lezak was earning between 10 to 20K per speech. But that has now dried up after giving four in January and only one in February Lezak has no other bookings as of yet. According to the Newsweek article his agent is pitching Lezak for informercials, hair-restoration ads and just about anything.
To help Lezak and other swimmers USA Swimming held an event very much like a speed dating event in which USA Swimming paired up swimmers to companies. Of course in these hard economic times companies are cutting out marketing budgets to save some coin. Which if my college marketing classes taught me anything was that cutting marketing in hard times is a bad thing as you want your customers not to switch lower price or generic brands during hard times as they might not come back when the times get better. Hmm...isn't Kellogg's in need of a new swimmer endorser?
During the cold war era is was long rumored that the Soviets and other eastern block countries payed military salaries to it's athletes so they wouldn't worry about paying bills and could concentrate on athletics. Here in the US we do it a bit different and give a small stipend to our athletes. USA Swimming gives each of the $1,750. It's the endorsement contracts and speaking fee's that keep most athletes above water and able to concentrate on athletics. Even Home Depot which had a great policy of employing our Olympic athletes have cut this practice during these tough economic times.
You can read the full article on Jason Lezak "America’s Unemployed Olympic Hero" over at newsweek.com
