Beyond Gold

His story was the stuff Olympic dreams once were made of.

Small-town boy Rulon Gardner, called “Fatso” by childhood schoolmates, grows up to be a world-class competitor in the obscure sport of Greco-Roman wrestling. He qualifies for the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where he is matched against the master of the sport, Alexander Karelin of Russia, in the gold-medal heavyweight match. Against all odds, Gardner defeats Karelin, one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history.

All of Afton, Wyo., a community of 1,630 in the western part of the state--lovingly welcomed its favorite son home Thursday. Perched atop a fire truck, Gardner stretched the ribbon that held his gold medal around his neck so everyone could see it and share his triumph as he led a parade through the five-block downtown. When it was time for him to make a speech, friends carried him to a podium on a “Greco-Roman coach,” a throne made out of a chair suspended on two poles.

Gardner tearfully thanked his friends, family and coaches. It was heartwarming enough to make even the most jaded sports fan smile.

But Gardner’s victory won’t make him rich. The American dream ended there for Gardner and many other U.S. athletes who combined for a 97-medal harvest in Sydney. Advertisers aren’t beating down their doors or clamoring to sign a transcendent athlete to promote products--apparently because no such athlete emerged from the U.S. contingent.

Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe became a hero down under after winning three gold medals and two silvers, but the likable teenager isn’t familiar to most Americans and few will see him between Olympics. That rules him out of contention for lucrative endorsements from major U.S. companies.

“There’s definitely not the heat from the Olympics as in past years,” said Brandon Steiner, president of Steiner Sports Marketing in New York. “There are a few exceptions, but in general there’s not much excitement. I’m not sure why. There’s so much going on in sports right now, but I’m not sure anybody can really put a finger on it.”

Although half a dozen U.S. athletes will profit from their Sydney success, winning a gold medal no longer puts its owner on a sure path to lasting fame and a pot of commercial gold.

There will be some short-term benefits as companies align themselves with medal winners. Swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg, who won two individual gold medals and a third in the medley relay, will get an unprecedented shared billing with Tony the Tiger on more than 2 million “champion” boxes of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. So will double-gold medal runner Maurice Greene and Marion Jones, who won gold in the 100- and 200-meter sprints and the 1,600-meter relay and bronzes in the long jump and 400-meter relay. Swimmer Jenny Thompson, who won three golds and a bronze in relays, will appear on boxes of Krispix.

Pictured on more than 1 million boxes of Wheaties--a standard of athletic achievement since the 1930s--will be Brooke Bennett, the only U.S. woman to win two individual swimming gold medals (in the 400- and 800-meter freestyle races), gold-medal pole vaulter Stacy Dragila and diver Laura Wilkinson, who won the 10-meter platform gold despite a broken foot.

“Wheaties clearly stands for something,” spokesman Greg Zimprich said. “Wheaties gives careful consideration to the athletes with whom it associates. We want to associate with athletes who are champions on and off the field. There are certain athletes we wouldn’t consider. . . . We look for someone who captures the heart and imagination of America. Based on the feedback we got, these three women accomplished that.”

Yet, there was no Mark Spitz, no dominant personality who figures to linger in the minds of American sports fans.

“The view of the Olympics this year was surrounded by negatives, the bribery scandals, the drugs,” said Nova Lanktree of Lanktree Sports Celebrity Network in Chicago. “There was a whole different feel to these Olympics. There used to be this sense of purity about the Olympics. It’s been waning, but there was still this desire to believe that it is something it isn’t.

“This year, the message hit home pretty hard that it’s not so pure. That colors the marketplace economy.”

The men’s and women’s gymnastics teams, usually sources of stars, won no medals; the Games were perceived as a failure for the women, after their team gold medal at Atlanta in 1996. A post-Olympic gymnastics tour, which drew huge crowds four years ago to see the “Magnificent Seven” re-create their Atlanta feats, reportedly has been canceled due to lack of interest.

“There were a lot of eggs in the gymnastics basket,” Steiner said. “Think of the gymnastics situation--no one sticks out.”

The economy is a factor in deflating athletes’ market value because many dot-com ventures are fighting for their economic lives and can’t afford to spend big dollars on celebrity endorsers. Another factor working against Olympians is the Screen Actors Guild strike, which has slowed the production of commercials and decreased the demand for actors.

Athletes hoping for big post-Olympic payoffs faced a built-in disadvantage because the Games were scheduled later than usual in the calendar year, putting them in conflict with college and pro football, the end of baseball season and the start of the NHL and NBA seasons. In addition, the immediacy of athletes’ performances was leached away when NBC showed events well after they occurred and packaged them in prime time for U.S. audiences. That may have contributed to NBC’s poor ratings, which means fewer viewers can identify medal winners or would buy a product those medalists pitch.

“The ratings have an effect. You don’t build as much name recognition. The rocket fuel for the space ship is not as powerful as it needs to be,” said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports Celebrity Service in Chicago, which matches advertisers with athletes for endorsements. “You may have one chance to build name recognition, and you’re doing it 15 hours away [from East Coast advertising decision-makers] and on tape delay.

“In my opinion, this year we just didn’t have a great year for charismatic athletes. Four years ago we had Dan O’Brien and Michael Johnson and a great number of athletes whose charisma enabled them to get endorsements. That’s the one intangible area for advertisers. I call it the X-factor for endorsements. It can propel you to the heights of Michael Jordan.”

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Gardner won’t reach those heights.

Unlike gymnast Mary Lou Retton--probably the reigning endorsement queen with an estimated $2 million in earnings 16 years after her Los Angeles exploits--figure skaters Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, decathlete Bruce Jenner and 1980 U.S. hockey team captain Mike Eruzione, Gardner has had few demands. Despite his inspirational success, Gardner, 29, has received only two offers: from the World Wrestling Federation and a company that wanted him to promote its motorcycles.’

The WWF has been persistent. Kurt Angle, a freestyle wrestling gold medalist at Atlanta in 1996 and a WWF star, taunted Gardner on a recent “Raw is War” telecast and claimed his own victory was greater than Gardner’s in beating “some nobody.” So far, Gardner isn’t biting.

“They’ve been calling my representatives, people at USA Wrestling [the sport’s governing body], anybody they can think of to try and get to me,” Gardner said. “But I don’t see pro wrestling in my future.”

The WWF would like him to change his mind.

“They call almost every day. They’ve offered me anywhere from $250,000 for one [pay-per-view] show to $1 million for a one-year contract,” Gardner said. “Believe me, that’s a lot more money than I made last year in amateur.

“But I believe I can help put Greco-Roman wrestling on the map. . . . We all have to stand up for what we believe in, and I still believe in amateur wrestling.”

But even if he changes his mind, his appeal is thought to be limited.

“Kurt Angle is an aberration. Gardner would not have the same kind of impact,” said Dave Scherer, a columnist for the 1wrestling.com Web site. “And I don’t see the point in signing him for just one match. He isn’t well-known enough with the general populace to do that. He would make his initial money, but I don’t see him as a star of Angle’s stature.”

Persuading people to think of him as more than a wrestler is a challenge.

“It was an emotional moment, a great victory and a great upset, and an emotional story,” Lanktree said of Gardner’s victory over Karelin. “But you had that with the ’80 hockey team, and none of them did much commercially. Mike Eruzione continues to be marketable on the speakers’ circuit, but other than that, nothing. Rulon will be in demand for television talk shows and I’ve even seen some things about guest spots on prime-time shows. But I don’t see anything lasting for him in the commercial part of the business. His sport is not very visible.”

Williams agreed.

“From an advertising standpoint, most of those sports don’t have continuous coverage after the Olympics, so the name can stay in people’s minds. And they don’t have large attendance,” Williams said. “Rulon Gardner--when are people going to see him wrestling again? The WWF or WCW? An athlete like that has a very difficult time getting endorsements. There’s no justification for an ad agency to hire him. Is his name recognition going to stay the same or increase?

“There are a number of athletes out there who can help. With the proliferation of figure skating, WNBA, women’s soccer and NASCAR, the rebirth of golf, you have a crowded field, so the Olympic athlete today has a tougher time. Some track and field stars, Lance Armstrong and Mia Hamm will do well. But that shuts out Rulon Gardner and [male gymnast] Blaine Wilson.”

Athletes who came into Sydney with strong resumes will continue to do well, Williams said. Armstrong, a two-time Tour de France winner who won a bronze in cycling, Hamm as a champion with the Olympic women’s soccer team in 1996 and the Women’s World Cup team in 1999 who won a silver in Sydney and Johnson, with two golds for a total of five in three Olympics, will fatten their commercial portfolios.

“Athletes that have name recognition will do better,” Williams said. “Marion Jones, Michael Johnson, Mia Hamm--the second time around, they ended up getting contracts before the Games. If your sport is not on national TV regularly and isn’t attended in large numbers, advertisers are going to look elsewhere.”

However, Jones’ future as an endorser may be in question following the disclosure her husband, world shotput champion C.J. Hunter, tested positive for the banned drug nandrolone four times.

“From what we know now, I don’t think it taints her yet. But it makes advertisers think twice,” Williams said. “What advertisers think is, ‘What is this athlete’s potential for off-the-field problems?’ Oftentimes, you don’t see any. Sometimes you see some.

“It’s possible she took drugs but wasn’t caught. It’s possible she knew her husband was taking drugs. Those are two issues that are bothersome to advertisers because they spend millions of dollars crafting an image, and it can be ruined in an instant. It slows her momentum in the endorsement game. It’s a drag on her ability to draw endorsements.”

Lanktree is less sure. “She’s got a Teflon coating,” Lanktree said. “After all, she didn’t do anything wrong. There was no investigative reporting behind some of the headlines that suggested she might be tainted.

“There’s potential for a lot of success for her. Certainly, there’s a strong foundation there.”

Gardner won’t be entirely shut out. “The good thing is athletes like Rulon Gardner can do very well as speakers,” Williams said. “[Gymnast] Peter Vidmar gets $10,000 a speech. He’s turned himself into an excellent motivational speaker and does 50 speeches a year. The guy makes a very, very nice living. . . . There are many others. Bruce Jenner and Mary Lou Retton make a very nice amount of coin speaking to corporate America.”

Gardner may try that route later, just as he reserved a decision on eventually trying pro wrestling. For now, though, there are cows to milk on the family farm. Riches don’t always come in the form of checks and endorsements.

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Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.