Lydia Ko completed her Olympics set with a gold while Dame Lisa Carrington made it three from three. Video / Chereè Kinnear / Getty / Photosport
New Zealand enjoyed its greatest-ever Olympics in Paris, finishing with a record 10 gold medals.
Aside from the pride and glory of their achievements, our Olympic heroes also have the potential to earn substantial financial rewards. According to an advertising industry source, gold medal winners could receive upto $500,000 for being the face of a major brand’s advertising campaign.
However, one of our greatest Olympians, Eric Murray, stresses that while victory opens up potential riches, our latest sporting achievers shouldn’t let their golds define them.
New Zealand’s gold medallists from Paris are the Black Ferns Sevens, Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors, Finn Butcher, Dame Lisa Carrington (who won three), Olivia Brett, Alicia Hoskin (who won two), Tara Vaughan, Ellesse Andrews (who won two), Lydia Ko, and Hamish Kerr.
And television isn’t the only avenue for them to make money. Gold medallists could make money from social media posts and for as few as six, a high-profile Kiwi athlete could earn between $60,000 and $100,000 per year, the advertising industry source told the Herald in 2021.
However, the earning potential depends on an athlete’s marketability, which is influenced by factors such as personality, the prominence of the sport, and their social media presence.
Lydia Ko poses with her gold medal after winning the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s golf. Photo / Photosport
Some athletes choose to sign long-term contracts that guarantee them an annual salary. A three- to five-year contract could see an athlete earning well into the six figures per annum, and this is just for one brand.
The potential of lucrative advertising and sponsorship deals was spelled out to Murray and Bond after their London victory by Rob Waddell; who won gold in the single sculls at the 2000 Olympics.
Waddell also hinted at the potential pitfalls of Olympic success and a higher profile, something Murray hopes our Olympians of 2024 are aware of.
“Being a hero in Sydney and being a rower, he sent us an email saying, ‘Guys, there are opportunities on the back end but just be prepared you are going to give up a lot of your time’,” Murray told the Herald last month.
Eric Murray and Hamish Bond during the medal ceremony after winning gold in the final of the men's pair at Eton Dorney during the 2012 London Olympics.
“It was quite full on that now you are a recognisable figure and doing things on the back of that, if you carry that onto different things like TV, advertising stuff with sponsorship.
“I think that is what a lot of people don’t realise, that there is a lot of time that you are giving up. And of course, with us going again, how much time can we give up because we are meant to be training?
“You can’t spread yourself everywhere. I would love to, but we don’t have enough time in the day, enough of me, to go everywhere and do things.”
Murray said sponsorship and marketing was a “really tricky place”, with individual athletes, duos or a member of a victorious larger team being singled out.
“That is just the nature of marketing, that is just the nature of sponsorship,” he said.
“Hamish and I just had something that was a little bit more different in the way we were referred to as ‘The Kiwi Pair’ that just set us apart a little bit.”
For Murray, the doors that Olympic success opened for him include starring on reality TV – something that allowed him to financially help a cause that was close to his heart.
Murray’s son, Zac, has non-verbal autism. The Olympic champion’s appearance on both Dancing With The Stars and Celebrity Treasure Island raised thousands of dollars for Autism New Zealand, the organisation he is patron of.
“When someone says, ‘Do you want to do Dancing With The Stars?’, I was like, ‘Oh, not really’. But then I understand the profile that I can give to Autism New Zealand or the funds we could win from doing the TV show; [and] my time can help other people.”
Winning an Olympic medal was a life-changing moment, but Murray said it shouldn’t be a life-defining one.
“If you need that gold medal for an identity, you are not doing it for the right reason,” he said.
“You should really want it because it is what you are passionate about and how you are looking at life. That was always the process of what we were doing.
“But at the end of the day, you still have to carry on with life as such. And it is something that I try to explain, especially to athletes if we talk to them.”
