Read equities – Mark Spitz and Ryan Lochte featured, yay!
Mark Spitz
America’s best swimmer not named Michael Phelps, Spitz dominated the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, setting multiple world records on his way to winning eleven Olympic medals, nine of them gold. Spitz abruptly retired from the sport at age 22 to get into show business.
He found modest success, notably as a commentator, endorsement machine, and pin-up. Unique among Olympian swimmers with his Selleck-esque mustache, a poster of the swimmer wearing his nine golds became one of the best-selling posters in the 1970s.
Ryan Lochte
Another good-looking swimmer, Lochte was tailor-made for endorsements. Specifically, he was really, really, ridiculously good-looking. While a successful Olympian like Carl Lewis had immense trouble finding sponsors on account of his flamboyancy, his brash attitude, or his skin color (opinions vary) Lochte was as harmless and pretty as a pony.
Lochte reportedly made over $2.3 million in endorsements in 2012 alone.
