Scandal (sadly) trumps success for many Olympians

It's been two months since the Rio Games ended, and already most of our Olympic athletes have become an afterthought.

With the Blue Jays making another run at the World Series, and the NHL and NFL seasons underway, Olympic sport once again takes a backseat to its professional counterpart. The trend is predictable and in most cases understandable. It's impossible to maintain the same media attention and fandom post-Games.

Yet this time, something is different.

If you're like me, you've noticed the athletes making post-Games headlines aren't the ones that should be. My social media feeds are littered with news of Ryan Lochte's engagement to his Playboy-model girlfriend and Shawn Barber's cocaine-infused tryst.

As society increasingly values celebrity over achievement (cue the Kardashian conversation here), I can't help but wonder: is being the best at something no longer good enough?  

It's the age of influencer marketing, a new norm where headlines, followers, subscribers and likes are as attractive to brand building as success. Like other entertainers, Olympic athletes face a new sponsorship reality where name recognition carries as much value as winning. 

A real role model

One of my favourite athletes at the Rio Olympics was Erica Wiebe. If the name doesn't automatically register, I get it. She told me her neighbour didn't even recognize her when she arrived home from Rio. You see, Erica competes in the niche sport of wrestling. She's an empowered, educated and intelligent woman. She also happens to have won gold for Canada at the Rio Games.  

Will her gold medal translate to sponsorship dollars? She acknowledges it may not happen, admitting that some athletes get that shot at being a household name while others may not, despite their athletic success. Is the opportunity always based on merit? Hardly. More likely it's a combination of factors, including the athlete's sport, timing, gender, personality and, more recently, the ability to create headlines, followers and likes.   

Finding the right voice on social media isn't easy for athletes. Erica admits overthinking what she puts out to the public — a dull pressure she feels to be someone she isn't in hopes of building a broader audience. More likely, she will give back by quietly inspiring the next generation through her actions — emulating athletes before her like Carol Huynh and Tonya Verbeek, giving back to the sport and the system that allowed her the opportunity to walk onto the world stage with a unique self-awareness created through the struggle and triumphs learned on the wrestling mat.  

For most Olympic athletes like Erica, achievement on its own may no longer be enough to move the sponsorship needle unless it is used as a stepping stone to building fame. 

What scares me the most is that fame and notoriety have almost become interchangeable. We're living in a media landscape where Ryan Lochte can embarrass his country and still reap vast rewards by starring on Dancing with the Stars and inking new sponsorship deals; where a drug and sex scandal may increase the public's awareness of world champion pole vaulter Shawn Barber.

Sadly, sport sponsorship investment doesn't always equate to elevating true role models like Erica, an athlete who is "only" the best in the world at what she does.