Two weeks after shocking the diving world by winning the gold medal in Olympic platform diving, Australian Matthew Mitcham has been honored with a stamp but has yet to secure a sponsorship deal, though one is rumored.
Mitcham, as is every Aussie gold medal winner, will receive $17,400 for allowing use of his image on Olympic stamps issued by Australia Post. Mitcham, 20, will also earn another $17,400 in a bonus paid by Adidas.
So far, though, Mitcham, who won the gold medal with a dazzling final dive Aug. 23, has yet to get the kind of sponsorship deals that have gone to Australian athletes like swimmer Stephanie Rice. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports:
[Australian broadcaster] Channel Seven’s deal with Rice is worth $700,000 [$567,000 U.S.] alone. While some would argue a case of Rice-induced indigestion resulting from the swimmer’s overexposure, corporate demand for Mitcham has not caught up with his enormous popularity and is in danger of flatlining for the diver.
Just like Rice, Mitcham looks like a sponsor’s dream: an Olympic gold medal, undeniably articulate and good looking.
Oh, and he’s openly gay. … Rice’s manager Chris White argued sexuality would not hold Mitcham’s earnings potential back. “It’s about consistency of performance and personality. Swimming is a sport with huge interest in Australia and sponsors are attracted to it.”
The paper also reports on a rumor that Mitcham turned down $25,000 for a “tell-all” offer from the gossip magazine “Woman’s Day.” (whose recent issue blared the headline: “Stephanie Rice: The Truth About Me and Michael Phelps.”
In addition, the Gold Coast website Down Under had this tidbit Friday:
A whisper is circulating that the man who stunned the world by winning Olympic gold for diving in the 10-meter platform, Matthew Mitcham, is to sign with a national sponsor.
What’s the big deal you ask about an Olympic gold medalist receiving national sponsorship?
Well, the tag is that young Matthew is the first openly gay male to receive such an offer from a big Australian corporation.
Mitcham has said nothing about any of this, since the Morning Herald reports that he is vacationing in France with his partner, Lachlan Fletcher, and won’t be back until next month. I have yet to see a single interview with Mitcham since the Games ended and Outsports is among those who have a request in with his publicist.
It is way too early to make a judgment yet about whether Mitcham being open about his sexuality will have a negative impact on his endorsement potential. He has by choice taken himself out of the limelight for some down time, and his manager did not return repeated phone calls from the Morning Herald (not a smart thing for a manager to do if he wants to keep his client in the news).
It’s also possible that Mitcham is not actively interested in endorsements, though his mom did tell the Morning Herald previously that one reason for some hesitancy about coming out was that “He was worried about that factor of sponsorship … But I think everybody has caught up now.”
The bottom line is that Australia has a gold medal winner with a compelling story and charismatic personality, who should be a sponsor’s dream. It is an interesting test case for any other athlete thinking about publicly coming out.
Update: A day after I posted this article, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that there is budding interest in Mitcham:
Contrary to reports at the weekend, sponsors are lining up to secure the flaxen-haired diver. … So, too, are sports agents, who are keen to snap him up.
Related: Outsports’ Mitcham archive
on Sep 7th, 2008 at 10:22 am
It’s will be interesting to see whether his success translates into big sponsorship bucks.
I hope it does but going on a six week holiday straight after Beijing probably wasn’t the way to do it. To capitalise he really needed to go home to Australia straight away, do interviews, bask in the attention etc. You need to “strike while the iron is hot”, so to speak, because the media interest only lasts so long and in this day and age, people’s attention spans are appallingly short. But I guess he didn’t think he’d win when he planned a European vacation.
Swimmers like Rice are royalty Down Under. Everyone else comes second and has to fight for limited sponsorship money. A female diver won gold for Australia in Athens (same event as Matt) and it didn’t make her a rich woman, or even very high profile. He’s going to have to milk it a bit and not everyone is comfortable doing that. Oh and get a good agent too.
on Sep 8th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
It’s hard to say what is going on here. Is it sponsors afraid of Matt’s sexuality? Or has Matt himself dropped the ball? Matt is entitled to every bit of peace and rest he can get, but is jetting off to France — right after your big moment — the smartest thing to do? He has to know that there would be huge interest in hearing his story from HIS mouth. He should have done 3-4 interviews, released them one by one over a few weeks, take the vacation and then get rich when in October upon his return.
I really hope his sponsorship requests goes beyond the Aussie Bum deal.
The other thng to keep in mind is this — Matt is not wealthy, at all. A free trip around Europe with several weeks in France has got to be a dream come true…or as Busselton Mail puts it “mooches around Europe”.
Plus, for those that read blogs and fansites, he should have released a interview with the basics. The rumors about him, Lachlan, their relationship, his father, his mother’s relationship with Lachlan are out of control.
on Sep 9th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Give the DNA cover to start
on Sep 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Well, he had better get some endorsement deal because that is a great story. Esp. for the fact that he ALONE prevented a Chinese sweep at the diving competitions. NO ONE ELSE! Him alone and he set a record!