General Mills Picks Its Olympic Wheaties Team

The great Olympic Wheaties box mystery is over. And the winner is Michael Johnson.

And Dan O’Brien.

And Amy Van Dyken.

And Tom Dolan.

And Kerri Strug, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu, Amanda Borden, Amy Chow and Jaycie Phelps. That’s right, the entire U.S. women’s gymnastics team.

This was, after all, the Atlanta Olympics. where nothing was done in a small way.

If they were going to honor Olympians from the biggest, most commercial games in history, you just knew they couldn’t stop at one.

So on Sunday, General Mills finally put an end to the biggest Olympic guessing game this side of the men’s 400-meter relay team lineup. Rather than produce a single box commemorating the Summer Games, General Mills made five. Stopping just short of utter excess, the cereal maker put the seven gymnasts together on one box.

The boxes will be on store shelves in about a week.

Being on a Wheaties box has for generations been confirmation that an athlete has achieved supremacy not only on the playing field but, more important, in the marketplace. Among Olympians, decathlete Bruce Jenner and gymnast Mary Lou Retton have received the honor.

Jenner and Retton emceed Sunday’s announcement, which featured appearances by all 11 of the athletes depicted on the new boxes.

Then with four giant black-draped boxes on the stage and suspense building, the unveiling began, each athlete crashing through an orange Wheaties screen as his or her name was announced.

First, Van Dyken, winner of four gold medals in swimming. “They called me after my last race. My jaw dropped,” she said.

Then O’Brien, the decathlon gold medalist. “This is one of my dreams,” he said.

Swimmer Dolan, the gold medal winner in the 400-meter individual medley, was next. “A tremendous honor,” he said.

No. 4 was Johnson, the gold medalist in the 200- and 400-meter sprints. “It’s terrific,” he said.

But where was Strug? Her gutsy performance in the gymnastics team’s gold medal event captured the nation’s heart and made her the leading candidate in the who’s-on-the-box derby.

With perfect show biz timing, Strug and her teammates rushed onstage for the grand finale and brought down the house.

General Mills is hoping to boost Wheaties sales by 20%. Shawn O’Grady, marketing manager for Wheaties, said the Minneapolis-based firm isn’t worried about pushing the concept too far. “Not with these five,” O’Grady said.