Swimmers Michael Phelps, 17 year old phenom Missy Franklin and Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, were supposed to hog the limelight at the 2012 olympics.
A funny thing happened though; a 16 year old gymnast named Gabby Douglas did a matrix on us and flipped the script.
All anyone talked about after the women’s gymnastics qualifying round – besides the jaw dropping collapse of fellow American Jordyn Wieber – was Gabby. She’d then helped her team to win the team all-around gold medal.
If that wasn’t enough miss Douglas turned around and stunned the world by winning the gold medal in the individual all-around, only the first African American to do so.
Her name then was securely written in the history books, many on Madison avenue scrambled to get near her.
Kellogg’s got there first, though the company had previously inked a multi-city tour with the whole team.
According to inside sources each member would gets a base salary anywhere between $10k to $100k.
Furthermore, by signing Gabby early, Kellogg’s was able to break a long tradition, of olympic athletes posing on the Wheaties cereal box first. Gabby’s financial team has been terribly secretive about her contracts so many are left to speculate.
Rumors were rampant on the net, for example, that Douglas had signed a $90 million deal with Kellogg’s – which is still not confirmed. There are many websites still reporting she’s already secured nearly 30 sponsors, again not much has been confirmed.
More recently it’s been announced that the Olympian would be the face of Nintendo’s Mario 3d game campaign. The company is trying to further tap the underserved female games market – with Douglas’ help.
The financial details here too aren’t readily available and to speculate on that contract’s worth is foolish.
Gabby Douglas is rightly taking on as many endorsements as she can. The career of a gymnast is terribly short; one or two Olympics, hopefully.
Gabby’s likeability will be an ageless asset though. In the words of master Yoda – “exploit it she must”.
