Phelps’ next chase: gold on land

Imagine Michael Phelps in 36 years making a few bucks working as a "coach" for a national hotel chain's promotion to find the "fittest couple."

That's what Mark Spitz was doing this week in New York City a few days after Phelps broke Spitz's record for most gold medals won during a single Summer Olympics.

Athletes are more marketing savvy today than they were in 1972, and there are many more outlets on television and the Internet.

Now that Phelps has won eight golds in the Beijing Games, it's unlikely the new Olympic king will have to work again. Or swim, for that matter.

Phelps, 23, was the Games' poster boy before the opening ceremonies. Now the Baltimore native's accomplishments could be worth "$100 million over the course of his lifetime," Peter Carlisle, one of Phelps' representatives at the Octagon agency, told The Wall Street Journal.

Just imagine what a publication will pay for a photo of him with his eight golds from this year and the 14 in his career? The poster of Spitz with his seven golds was a hot item in his prime.

"He is in the top tier of athletics, and now he's going to get his tryout as a personality," said John Sweeney, director of sports communication at the University of North Carolina.

"Tiger Woods sure passed, but Mark Spitz didn't.''

Phelps arrived in Beijing with endorsements deals with Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton and AT&T that put estimates of his current earnings at between $3 million and $5 million.

There's a lot to be said for the value of success in amateur sports.

• SILVER STILL SHINES -- The seventh goal by the Netherlands' Danielle de Bruijn's in the final of women's water polo came with 26 seconds left Thursday and gave her team a 9-8 victory and dropped the USA to silver.

"It's just a little bittersweet," American Natalie Golda said as she wiped away tears. "It's an amazing thing to have an Olympic medal. But we had the game. Like, we had it in our grasp and let it slip away."

• SEEKING SOCCER MOMENTUM -- When the USA won the World Cup in 1999, it seemed like the perfect time to a start professional women's soccer league in this country.

It failed after a few years, and that was with American Olympic stars the public could name.

Now, the Women's Professional Soccer league is on the cusp in its inaugural season next year.

Thursday's 1-0 extra time win by the USA over Brazil on a goal by Carli Lloyd should help build interest. It's the Americans' second straight Olympic gold and third overall.

League commissioner Tonya Antonucci told SportsBusinessDaily.com that the league wants to sign Brazil's Marta and that this morning's gold-medal match between her team and the USA would give the new league considerable momentum.

She said Monday's semifinal between the USA and Japan was the sixth-highest viewed video on NBCOlympics.com.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL