How much commercial value do athletes who create miracles have?

Let us explore together how great the commercial value of these athletes who created miracles in this globally watched sporting event is.

For a long time to come, many people will reminisce about August 1, 2024.

On this day, Pan Zhanle won the men's 100m freestyle final at the Paris Olympics with a time of 46.40 seconds, leading the second-place Chalmers by 1.08 seconds, breaking his own world record and winning the first gold medal of this Olympics for the Chinese national swimming team.

It was also on this day that Zheng Qinwen defeated the world number one, Swiatek, 2-0, becoming the first Chinese tennis player to enter the Olympic women's singles final.

On the same day, Fan Zhendong finally defeated his opponent Zhang Benzhihe after a hard fight of 1 hour and 8 minutes and advanced to the semi-finals.

To date, Zheng Qinwen defeated Croatian player Vikic to win China's first Olympic women's singles gold medal in tennis; Fan Zhendong defeated dark horse player Moregaard to win the men's singles gold medal in table tennis; Pan Zhanle, as the last runner in the men's 4×100m relay on his 20th birthday, overtook the third place and helped the Chinese swimming team add another gold medal.

Zheng Qinwen won the gold medal in the women's singles tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Image source: CCTV News official WeChat public account

In this year's Olympics, the moment of winning the championship still attracted much attention, but the moment of making history did not only happen in the finals. The audience cheered for every tenacious struggle and was moved by every "ascending moment".

Some of these "soaring moments" were thrilling, some were unexpected, some were questioned, and some were full of complaints and made people laugh. However, these have increased the discussion of the event and the athletes around the world, and have also become the code for the subsequent "soaring" of traffic for athletes.

Brands’ financial investments will flow to wherever traffic flows, and many athletes’ net worth has skyrocketed after rising in the rankings or winning their first gold medal.

For example, after Zheng Qinwen entered the US Open and Australian Open, her income jumped directly to 15th place in the 2023 female athlete income list; after the diving genius girl Quan Hongchan won the championship, brands came to discuss sponsorship and stepped through the door of her house. In the long run, the commercial value of athletes is sustainable. For example, retired star athletes such as Liu Xiang, Li Na, Yao Ming, Guo Jingjing, etc. are still ranked in the first echelon of high-quality brand spokespersons. So how considerable is the commercial value of the athletes who created miracles in this Olympics?

1. Who is making history? Who is the most eye-catching?

“One of the most important gold medals.”

This is a highly praised comment on the CCTV News video account about Pan Zhanle's championship video. In the early morning of August 1, the 19-year-old young athlete won the gold medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle with a time of 46.40 seconds.

At the same time, he broke his own world record of 46.80 seconds set in the men's 4×100m freestyle relay at the World Swimming Championships in February this year, and surpassed the second-place Chalmers by half a body length, leading by 1.08 seconds.

This competition immediately attracted worldwide attention because in the 128 years since the men's 100-meter freestyle event was established at the first Olympic Games in 1896, only Japanese athlete Koji Miyazaki in Asia had won the championship in 1932.

Pan Zhanle not only won the first gold medal for the Chinese swimming team in this Olympics, but also created history in China and even the world swimming world, breaking the monopoly of European and American athletes in this event.

Pan Zhanle won the gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle. Image source: CCTV News official WeChat public account

Another person who constantly breaks down her opponents’ psychological defenses on the court is the 21-year-old “Tennis Queen” Zheng Qinwen, who is participating in the Olympics for the first time.

On the evening of July 31, in the women's singles tennis quarter-finals, Zheng Qinwen fought for more than 3 hours. Despite being 1-4 behind in the deciding set, she reversed the situation and defeated the former world No. 1 and German star Kerber 2-1.

On August 1, after a hard fight and a rest of less than 19 hours, Zheng Qinwen faced the world's number one Polish star Swiatek, whom she had never defeated before, in the women's singles tennis semi-finals, and defeated her opponent 2-0 to enter the final.

At this moment, Zheng Qinwen has made history by becoming the first Chinese tennis player to enter the Olympic women's singles final.

On August 3, Zheng Qinwen made history again, defeating Croatian player Vikic in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 to win China's first Olympic women's singles gold medal in tennis.

This gold medal is also the second Olympic gold medal for Chinese tennis after the Chinese combination Li Ting/Sun Tiantian won the women's doubles championship at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Zheng Qinwen became more and more courageous in the three games. Even when he was extremely physically exhausted, he was still able to run all over the court to catch the ball. His "hitting the flesh" force once made his opponent throw his racket in anger.

Faced with the provocation of low-quality spectators in the stadium, she showed her true colors as a queen and responded domineeringly... The image of a talented and tenacious professional athlete has become more and more vivid as her popularity continues to rise.

Zheng Qinwen was fighting hard in the women's singles competition. On the other side, her two teammates Zhang Zhizhen and Wang Xinyu temporarily formed a new mixed doubles combination in order to allow Zheng Qinwen to compete with her full strength. They unexpectedly made it to the final and won the silver medal.

As they had no previous experience of cooperation, they "played mixed doubles in the way of singles", and often got together to receive the ball without any tacit understanding, which was a very funny scene.

The mutual help and overall situation concept conveyed by the two also attracted another wave of traffic to the Chinese tennis team.

In addition, an extreme sport, freestyle BMX, also appeared in the gold medal list of the Chinese team in this Olympics. The champion Deng Yawen was only 18 years old and created a historic moment for China in this unpopular event.

Deng Yawen in the women's freestyle BMX park final at the Paris Olympics. Image source: CCTV News official WeChat public account

For the Chinese team, tennis, swimming and freestyle BMX are not their strong events, but they often get unexpected surprises in this session. On the contrary, table tennis, their strong event, has encountered a lot of research and confrontation from opponents in recent times. It can be said that "it is easy to occupy the mountain but difficult to defend it."

In this year's men's table tennis singles competition, Wang Chuqin was eliminated unexpectedly, leaving only Fan Zhendong from the national team to compete for the gold medal. However, he faced a strong opponent, Tomokazu Harimoto, in the quarter-finals and lost two games in a row, which made people sweat.

Afterwards, Fan Zhendong replicated Ma Long's "changing clothes and turning the tables" tactics of the year, adjusted his condition and returned to the court, eventually winning 4-3 and successfully entering the semi-finals.

In the final on the evening of August 4, Fan Zhendong finally defeated the dark horse player of this Olympics, Moregaard, and became the sixth male Grand Slam player in the world table tennis after Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Zhang Jike and Ma Long.

Fan Zhendong in the men's table tennis singles final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Image source: CCTV News official WeChat public account

On the other hand, women's table tennis once again saw the scene of "family members winning gold medals", with Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha making it to the finals. This match, which represented the peak level of the world's women's table tennis, was also very tense, with the two players taking turns to lead, and it took 6 games to decide the winner. In the end, Chen Meng defeated Sun Yingsha to win the women's singles table tennis championship.

In addition to the athletes mentioned above, Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng from the men's gymnastics team won the audience's favor with their amazing perseverance and responsibility; Zhang Yihan from the women's gymnastics team quickly became popular with her "tsundere" entrance.

Some athletes have an entertaining physique, "strong and funny", such as Liang Weiqing and Wang Chang, who participated in the men's doubles badminton team of the Olympics for the first time. They were called a pair of "Crouching Dragon and Phoenix". They made the tense game feel relaxed and maximized the emotional value. They entered the finals with popular memes such as "Chili praying for rain", "LV stool", "stealing people in the backcourt", "opening champagne all the way", and "What's up", and finally won the silver medal.

2. The commercial value of star athletes has begun to explode

Some accolades backfire, but that's rare with athletes.

Because their way of becoming popular does not require too much marketing processing, those wonderful clips of them winning gold medals can withstand repeated broadcasts and viewings, and the people who created the wonderful clips can also withstand the "archaeology" of fans, thus revealing their lovely side outside the arena.

For example, the praise after Pan Zhanle won the championship was mixed with a lot of doubts from overseas. But in the end, the Chinese swimming team's countless qualified drug test results and Pan Zhanle's historical achievements of constantly breaking through himself and growing rapidly made the rumors and doubts self-defeating.

Perhaps due to his young age and seldom appearances, Pan Zhanle was not as well-known as his other teammates before winning the gold medal. But as soon as the news of his victory came out, endorsements came quickly.

At present, the two companies that have responded the fastest are Didi Chuxing and Nongfu Spring. Among them, Didi Chuxing officially announced that it has become the Didi Chuxing online car-hailing "Happy" Ambassador, and has also launched a number of taxi activities, such as the 3-minute no-car compensation and high temperature subsidies for drivers.

Another person who received a lot of attention in this Olympics is Zheng Qinwen. She was sent abroad for training early on and signed with an agency, and her commercial value has skyrocketed.

Due to his outstanding talent, he had already made his mark in major world-class competitions long before participating in the Olympics and had accumulated extremely high commercial value.

At the age of 10, Zheng Qinwen was valued by her coach for her powerful and offensive playing style; at the age of 13, she participated in the Nike National Youth Competition and was noticed by Nike for her explosive serve and super endurance.

At the age of 17, Zheng Qinwen embarked on her professional journey. In just two years, she reached the top eight of the US Open and Australian Open. In January this year, Zheng Qinwen won the runner-up in the Australian Open women's singles, becoming the second Chinese player after Li Na to advance to the Grand Slam singles final.

According to the 2023 female athlete income list released by Forbes magazine in December last year, Zheng Qinwen ranked 15th with US$1.7 million in tournament prize money and US$5.5 million in endorsement sponsorship income (approximately RMB 40 million), totaling US$7.2 million in income, becoming the first Chinese tennis player to be included in the list after Li Na.

According to incomplete statistics, before he won the Olympic gold medal, Zheng Qinwen had at least 10 endorsements, including Nike, Ant Group, Rolex, Gatorade, Yili, Wilson, Swish, Bawang Tea Princess, Lancome, etc.

Zheng Qinwen advances to the semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games women's tennis singles. Photo source: CCTV News official WeChat public account

Brands are also willing to make exceptions for her. For example, at this year's Australian Open, Zheng Qinwen's jersey was printed with not only the Nike logo but also the word "Alipay".

Prior to this, the only athletes allowed to print other brand names on their sponsored jerseys were Li Na and Naomi Osaka.

It is foreseeable that Zheng Qinwen will be flooded with endorsement offers after winning the championship. IMG, the sports agency behind him, also has Chinese athletes such as Gu Ailing, Su Yiming, and Li Na. According to Shenzhen Business Daily, Li Na's annual income after winning the Australian Open was as high as 140 million yuan, and Gu Ailing's income after the 2023 Winter Olympics will exceed 150 million yuan.

Based on this calculation, Zheng Qinwen, whose income from bonuses and endorsements and sponsorships exceeded 51 million yuan last year, is not impossible to earn over 100 million yuan this year.

In fact, in addition to the champions, players with outstanding performance or their own traffic will also be favored by various brands.

For example, Wang Shun, who also performed well in this Olympics, immediately signed a contract with Luckin Coffee after making his mark in last year's Asian Games, becoming a brand spokesperson and gaining a lot of attention. According to incomplete statistics, he, who was already famous before Pan Zhanle, got at least 8 endorsements in this year's Olympics.

In addition, according to Entertainment Hard Candy, Wu Yanni, who has a flamboyant personality, secured business cooperation with dozens of brands during the Asian Games. Before the Paris Olympics, Wu Yanni was favored again and secured cooperation with many brands including Yili.

It can be seen that receiving attention is the beginning of an athlete’s commercial value explosion.

In addition, many sports stars have received continued favor from brands. For example, this year Yili found Xu Haifeng, Liu Guoliang, Liu Xiang and Li Na, who had retired for a long time, to shoot a video to pay tribute to the Olympic pioneers.

Former champions not only have the status of Olympic predecessors, but also a sense of sentiment, so they can still gain the favor of brands at a time when the whole nation is paying attention to the Olympics.

3. Who wins the brand bet?

So far, the Chinese team has won 20 gold medals, 15 silver medals and 12 bronze medals.

Screenshot of China's medal table at the Paris Olympics, source: Paris 2024 Olympics official website

Before this, many brands placed bets in advance. Brands such as Yili, Anta, and Coca-Cola cast a wide net and signed almost all athletes who had won world championships.

According to the sports category, the players of the table tennis team have received a lot of endorsements. According to incomplete statistics, the brands that Sun Yingsha has publicly cooperated with include Yili, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Tide and Shengxiang Flooring.

The cooperation brands that Wang Chuqin publicly revealed are: Yili, Anta, Kiehl's, Panasonic Air Conditioning, Coca-Cola, etc.

Dior, Weijute and others chose Chen Meng; Prada, Omega, L'Oreal, Gu Jiajia Furniture, Biotherm and Nanfu Battery chose Ma Long; Anta, Yili, jELLYCAT, Midun Eyewear and others chose Fan Zhendong.

Judging from the current medal results, except for the event in which Ma Long participated, which has not yet started, the brands sponsoring the table tennis team have all bet on success.

The swimming team is also a key area for brands to bet on. Among them, Zhang Yufei's publicly revealed cooperation brands include Yili, Dior, Pacific Insurance, Honor, Omega and SENGOGA; Qin Haiyang's publicly revealed cooperation brands include Anta, Yili, Pacific Insurance and TAG Heuer.

Although neither of the two athletes mentioned above has won a gold medal yet, they are still very popular and discussed, and often appear on hot searches.

In addition, the diving team, known as China's "Dream Team", also received sponsorship from many brands. The sponsorship team of its representative athletes Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi includes names of brands such as Yili, Coca-Cola, Macro, Nutrilite, Nongfu Spring, and Maoren.

Zhang Boheng, the captain of the gymnastics team, also received a lot of endorsements before the game because of his strength in gymnastics selection, including Ctrip Travel, HUAWEI Mate60 series, etc. Interestingly, a Japanese protein powder brand Meiji SAVAS bet on this "Japanese gymnastics nemesis", and some comments said that Meiji SAVAS was "violating the training".

In addition to casting a wide net, many brands have made "magic bets". Bawang Chaji has become the "winner" of this Olympics. Before the Olympics, it selected Zheng Qinwen of the tennis team, Wang Shun of the swimming team, and the badminton women's doubles team Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan as brand health ambassadors. These four athletes have won medals in their corresponding events.

Betting on Zheng Qinwen, who has made rapid progress in international competitions but has yet to win a championship, is Bawang Cha Ji's "masterstroke".

Image source: Bawangchaji official WeChat public account

After Zheng Qinwen won the championship, Bawang Tea Princess launched a celebration event. Users who guessed the correct password could receive free coupons for related items and "raise a toast to health ambassador Zheng Qinwen."

Another company, Chu's Agriculture, bet on Deng Yawen, the champion of the unpopular freestyle BMX event. It also designed the "Zheng De Cheng" peripheral fan. From the pictures of the competition, Deng Yawen used the "Zheng De Cheng" peripheral fan to fan herself many times. After she won the championship, Chu's Agriculture released several videos and tweets to celebrate, and distributed the peripherals on the streets of Paris. Chu's Agriculture is also the only company that has bet on Deng Yawen in advance so far.

It can be seen that betting on Olympic athletes depends on vision, but luck is also indispensable.

As the competition progresses, more medals will be won by the Chinese team. Some athletes who have finished the competition are returning home one after another. They may receive more endorsement invitations in the future, and after resting, they will continue to engage in intensive training and continue to release their "gold content".