It’s a sad certainty: Mere months, if not weeks, after the hordes leave the Olympic village in Beijing, most of the competitors–even the medalists–will slip from international consciousness. And as their stars quickly dim, so do their dreams of cashing in on their extraordinary achievements.

While many athletes, entertainers and models are able to parlay their celebrity into successful business ventures, Olympians, for all their tenacity and dedication, by and large don’t have the same entrepreneurial edge.

“The celebrity experience of the Olympics is relatively short-lived,” says Dean Baim, economics and finance professor at Pepperdine University who has closely studied the business of the Games. “Outside of a few really devoted people, these sports don’t have a mass following. By Christmas, people will be asking, ‘Who was that swimmer guy?’”

 

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Bart Conner And Nadia Comaneci

These married medalists–Conner with two golds for the U.S. gymnastics team in 1984 and Comaneci with five in the 1976 and 1980 games for the Romanian team–have built a mini-empire catering to would-be Olympian gymnasts. Among the businesses: Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy, a training facility in Norman, Okla.; International Gymnast magazine; Grips, Etc., a gym-equipment supplier; and Gym Divas, a clothing company.

Debbie Meyer

By age 16, Meyer had nabbed three gold medals for women’s swimming in the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Today she makes entrepreneurial waves with two swim-training centers near Sacramento, Calif. She’s planning on opening another in Sacramento and one in the Tahoe area within the next year. Since 1993, Meyer and her swim instructors have taught mainly younger swimmers, and none have made it big. To nab Olympic coaching, parents pay $240 for eight sets of private 15-minute lessons.

Oscar De La Hoya

This lethal lightweight rose to international stardom when he won the gold medal for the U.S. boxing team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He has since founded Golden Boy Promotions, a firm that promotes boxers and fights. Thanks to his company, De La Hoya wins even when he loses, as he did against Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2007. No matter: Golden Boy still brought in $43 million for promoting the fight (and for the boxer’s 36 grueling minutes in the ring).

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