What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

Back then, I don't think you got much in the way of endorsements for winning a gold medal in any Winter Olympic event. As a ski champion, probably the best you could hope for was to carve out a career as a resort ambassador, like Billy Kidd or Stein Eriksen. Even today, you have to be at the top of the heap in the racing events to have hope of earning any money doing ads.

It took Picabo Street and, to a lesser extent, Jonny Moseley's medals in Lillehammer and Nagano for most Americans to start noticing the ski events at the Winter Olympics, but neither would have gotten there without Billy Kidd or Bill Johnson's legacies.
 
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

SteveP said:
I think it may have been the latter. No one even gave a thought to him being on the medal podium before the race began.
Click to expand...
He was quoted as saying " you know what this means (holding up the medal)? It means millions and i mean millions!"
 
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Back then, I don't think you got much in the way of endorsements for winning a gold medal in any Winter Olympic event. As a ski champion, probably the best you could hope for was to carve out a career as a resort ambassador, like Billy Kidd or Stein Eriksen. Even today, you have to be at the top of the heap in the racing events to have hope of earning any money doing ads.

It took Picabo Street and, to a lesser extent, Jonny Moseley's medals in Lillehammer and Nagano for most Americans to start noticing the ski events at the Winter Olympics, but neither would have gotten there without Billy Kidd or Bill Johnson's legacies.
Click to expand...

Jean Claude Killy enjoyed icon status in Europe--France, at least. I suspect he made a lot of money from it. problem is that Jordan, Woods et al. changed what is meant by "a lot of money" in sports.
 
Last edited:
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

The Euros back then were making bank. Outside of the Mahre brothers US Skiing was mostly seen as a joke iirc and it wouldn't surprise me that there wouldn't be much bank unless a skier hit a soft spot with Euro fans.
 
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

Slap Shot said:
The Euros back then were making bank. Outside of the Mahre brothers US Skiing was mostly seen as a joke iirc and it wouldn't surprise me that there wouldn't be much bank unless a skier hit a soft spot with Euro fans.
Click to expand...

Basically this. And even the Mahres had to go into resort marketing/big money race camps, starting with Keystone and then moving on to Deer Valley after Stein got too old for the resort to continue using pics of him from the late 60s as the face of ads.
 
Re: The Dead Thread: Yep. Still Dead.

Anyone mention Celine Dion's manager/husband. I could swear I saw it here, but now can't find it.

In any case, you know that her heart will go on*.





*I've been waiting all weekend to do that one. :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top