part 1
Olympic star building a bright business career
By Jill Lieber, USA TODAY
Ask seven-time Olympic medalist swimmer Amanda Beard to list the most amazing opportunities she has had since last summer's Athens Games, and she's stumped.
Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard has turned gold won at the 2004 Summer Games into golden opportunities in the business world. Here, she models clothing made by Speedo.
Speedo
"Wow, I feel like there have been so many," she says, letting out a sigh. "Where do I begin?" (Related item: Beard's busy calendar)
Well, for starters, she's the face of Speedo's new active wear line, Axcelerate, and she'll be featured in more than $1 million of print advertising this year.
She's launching a line of Amanda Beard signature products, including skin care, hair care, fragrance, sunscreen and body wash. She'll co-own the company and be its primary decision maker, with a goal of grossing $100 million by 2010.
She's posing in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue — sprawled on the Puerto Rican sand in a bikini in a three-page foldout.
And she's signing long-term endorsement deals with Oroweat bread, Red Bull, Penta water and Mutual of Omaha; developing a series of book projects; investigating TV show hosting possibilities; and designing a licensed 2006 Amanda Beard calendar.
"I've always been very focused and determined," Beard says. "The things I've wanted to do haven't changed drastically over the years. I really want to do everything."
Seven months after winning the Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, plus silvers in the 200 individual medley and the 400 medley relay, Beard, 23, is doing just that while her Olympic teammates are preparing for the world championships trials.
To teenage girls, she's living proof to never give up. To women, she's the embodiment of a healthy active lifestyle. And to men, she's one of the sexiest athletes alive.
She's one of the most downloaded female athletes on the Internet. She was voted ESPN.com's Page 2 Hottest Female Athlete of 2005. In the past year, her Web site (www.amandabeard.net) has registered 650,000 hits.
She's got a full-time modeling, endorsement, corporate speaking and personal appearance schedule that will take her away from her Tucson home on 2 acres at the edge of the Sonoran desert; her beloved dogs, Jerry, 10, a sheltie, and Harlee, 5, a border collie and German shepherd mix; and her classes and swimming training at the University of Arizona as many as 150 days this year.
And, oh yes. She's commanding $15,000 an appearance.
"Amanda's doing something that has never been done: She's become more popular after the Olympics," says Craig Brommers, Speedo's vice president of marketing. "She represents the fusion of fashion, sports and entertainment. In the past, the rap against other female athletes who've stepped outside their arena, like Anna Kournikova, has been: What have they won? But Amanda has won seven Olympic medals and is a world recordholder. She's very much an authentic sportswoman."
Adds Diane Smith, Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue editor: "Amanda's pretty unique. She has that unique beauty, along with that unique athletic ability, which hasn't been seen before. She's an amazing athlete with a gorgeous body and beautiful eyes. She has it all."
Her agent, Evan Morgenstein of Premier Management Group, fields dozens of phone calls a week from corporations, TV production companies, entrepreneurs, charities and event organizers inquiring about Beard's availability.
He's turning down infomercials, reality TV shows, speaking engagements and endorsement opportunities left and right because many of the companies and projects just don't meet the high standards that Beard has set.
"The poster boy for the 2004 Olympics was (swimmer) Michael Phelps," Morgenstein says. "The irony is that someone in his own sport has eclipsed his stardom."
More than an athlete
Now Beard is attempting to transcend her sport and solidify herself as a brand.
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
Amanda Beard helped the U.S. earn a silver medal in the 4x100 medley at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
She doesn't want to be known only as an Olympic gold medalist, a world recordholding swimmer or a bikini model.
She wants to be known as the CEO of her own empire.
"I'm not afraid to put myself out there," says Beard, who is majoring in retail and consumer sciences at Arizona. Although she began college in 1999, she's a junior in standing because she has taken time to train for two Olympics and to fulfill her endorsement responsibilities, as well as to start her own company.
"I go for what I want," Beard continues. "I don't take no for an answer. If you have your mind set on big things and going big, and you're working that way, hey, hopefully you'll have staying power."
She and Morgenstein talk on the phone at all hours of the day, brainstorming her big dreams and his big ideas. The phone starts ringing in his Cary, N.C., office at 7 a.m., and many nights, it doesn't end until well after midnight.
Their vision of the business?
"Think Victoria Principal with a swimsuit, Kathy Ireland with goggles, Suzanne Somers with a gold medal," Morgenstein says. "No athlete that I can think of has created the vision and foundation for longevity and massive public acceptance as an innovator and spokesperson as Amanda has and will. We are creating a platform for her to use her sensibilities and life experiences to help women all over the world.
"If Mary Lou Retton had built her own brand instead of just being a spokesperson, she'd be a zillionaire right now. Amanda grew up at a time with a lot of strong women as role models. She says, 'I'm not going to be bought. I'm going to own.' We want to have an equity stake in areas we have an opportunity to build her out as a brand.
"Whether she ever swims another lap in the pool, her legacy in sports is set. Now we are going to exceed that legacy outside of the pool."
In fact, she's so busy flying around the country these days trying to become Amanda Beard Inc. that it's getting increasingly difficult for her to put together a string of quality swim workouts. On the road, she attempts to swim laps in hotel pools, and before she goes to bed, she'll do the dry land exercises (push-ups, sit-ups and core work) prescribed by Arizona coach Frank Busch.
Building a future
She's entered in three events at the world championship trials at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis on April 1-6, but she won't decide whether to compete until she dives into the pool a few days before the meet and sees how she feels in the water.
"We just try and swim whenever she's in town," Busch says. "It's difficult, but that's OK. This is a gift she has been given for her hard work and not something she has to justify. I've told her to strike while the iron is hot," Busch says. "And right now, the iron for Amanda Beard is very hot."
Beard's packed datebook
Thursday: Satellite media tour for USA Swimming to promote pool safety. Invited to Indiana Pacers game, courtside seats.
Friday: Swim.
Saturday: Appearance at the Fan Fest for women's NCAA basketball tournament.
Monday: Creative concept meeting with cosmetic industry executives Jim Morrison and Rob Wilcox and agent Evan Morgenstein to discuss signature hair and skin care lines.
April 5: Meeting with Speedo and Fresh Squeezed.
April 7: Fly to Long Beach for Toyota Grand Prix.
April 8: Media day for Toyota Grand Prix. Evening meeting with potential author of her health, fitness, style and beauty book.
April 9: Race day.
April 10-11: Speedo photo shoot in Los Angeles. Fly to Boston.
April 12: Personal appearance for Boston Scientific. Fly to Chicago.
April 13: Axcelerate launch at Marshall Field's department store. Redeye flight to Los Angeles.
April 14: Meeting with a TV production company about TV show hosting ideas. Fly home to Tucson.
April 15: Fly to Eugene, Ore.
April 16: Swim clinic for 400-plus kids with Olympic teammate Kaitlin Sandeno.
Her master plan? To build her business this year and next, then concentrate on training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Jim Morrison, the former president of L'Oreal who is partnering with Beard to launch her signature beauty products, has a vested interest in branding her.
"I've been around this business a long time," says Morrison, who built signature products for Britney Spears and Baby Phat. "In terms of personalities that could be branded, there aren't many athletes who have what Amanda does. She has an athletic side; she's as beautiful as anyone in the athletic world, and there's an aura about how she takes care of herself. Amanda's at the top of my list of athletes who can become a household name. And on top of all that, Amanda's got laser-beam blue eyes that just stop you."
She made her Olympic debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games as a 5-foot-2, 100-pound, 14-year-old. She earned silver medals in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and a gold in the 400 medley relay, and in the process, she melted hearts by toting her teddy bear onto the starting blocks and the medals podiums.
"When I got home from the Olympics, I realized everybody knew who I was," she says. "I thought, 'Oh, it must have been a big deal.' "
Then, in six months, Beard grew 6 inches and gained 25 pounds. She struggled to deal with her new body and had to learn to swim all over again.
"I read an article about how I'd gained so much weight," Beard says. "I didn't gain weight; I gained maturity. It's what little girls do. But I was too young to understand that."
Out of the water
In 1997, she got so frustrated that she quit swimming for three months.
"I needed a break to get away from it and get an outsider's view," she says. "I realized how much I liked having swimming in my life. So I went back on my own terms and said, 'I don't really care what the rest of the world thinks. I'm just going to swim for me and have fun with it.
"I learned to embrace my new body, to get comfortable with the extra length and weight, to become strong enough, inside and out, to pull myself through the water."
Three years later, at the 2000 Sydney Games, Beard won a bronze medal in the 200 breaststroke.
"When I arrived at the Olympic trials, I wasn't even a blip on the radar," she says. "No one even considered me to be a contender, so I didn't have any pressure on myself. But I meant business.
"Making that team and winning the bronze was one of my greatest achievements. It was a huge struggle for me to get to that spot in that moment of time."
Who would've ever imagined that the body that once betrayed Beard would one day empower her?
"In the end, it's all about what's inside of Amanda," Morgenstein says. "Amanda Beard Inc. is the outcropping of a girl, and a woman, who has no fear. She outworks everybody else in, and out, of the pool. She challenges herself to dream the biggest dreams. And she's got a tremendous will to win."
One-person focus group
Today, she's immersing herself in the creation of her signature beauty products.
"I'm extremely impressed by how much she knows about cosmetics," Morrison says. "She knows chemical ingredients that few women, other than those who work at the cosmetics counter at Macy's, know. She's shared compounds she has discovered in little shops during her travels.
"Her thing to me has always been: I want to be in this business. I want to make the perfume I spray on myself. I want to make the suntan lotion I put on my back. I want to make the polish I put on my nails."
She's throwing herself into the launch of Axcelerate active wear.
"She's our very own focus group," Speedo's Brommers says. "She provides continuous feedback as we both develop and market the line. It's much more than just a show-up-at-the-photo-shoot type of relationship. She's our true business partner."
She's diving into fashion, design and modeling.
"She gets really excited about what she's wearing," SI's Smith says. "She's got stamina. She loves looking at swimsuits and trying them on. And she's very interested in fashion. I wondered, 'Where did she get the time to learn all of this?' "
When she's home in Tucson, Beard's enrolled in a business writing course at Arizona. A recent assignment: write a résumé and apply for a job. Beard tried to explain to her professor that she already has a job — being an entrepreneur.
"She said, 'Don't you want to be more than middle management? Don't you want to make $100,000 a year?' " Beard recalls. "I bit my tongue and giggled on the inside, knowing what my life has become."
She laughs.
"Everything I'm doing is a huge classroom," Beard says, "and I should get my college degree for it."
The bottom line is an athlete has a pretty small window of time where they are marketable. Since swimming isn't a big money sport in the U.S. this window is probably even smaller. You can't begrudge Amanda for trying to make a great living off swimming while she can. The downside is it could affect her performance in the pool, but I think she's a ways from becoming the Anna Kournikova of swimming.
I think this is great for swimming. We basically disappear from public veiw every 4 years. Now we have someone who will stay in the publics thoughts all year and thats great for swimming. She may become Amanda Beard CEO and billionaire but she will always be Amanda Beard Olympic Swimmer.
not a lot of junk goes overseas...
Wow, I have heard everything now. When was the last time you went to Western Europe, Southeast Asia, etc? One of the number one things we export is entertainment and media. Every movie we make and album produced here is reproduced across the ponds any times over. Heck the number one piracy business in China are our movies. By the way, the investor comment regarding Amanda was as equally cynical. Please tell me 1 (just 1) business venture anywhere where there were no "investors" involved to be successful. It takes money to make money, that is a simple fact of economics. If you want to make a case she is only making money because she is marketable (i.e. she looks good) then I might be willing to see a point, but to contend she has done nothing and is doing nothing but giving in to "investors" is a ludicrous statement.
And what is all that about anyway?What is the big deal about another pretty famous face starting her own business venture?
I get the kick out of how stars like to say that THEY do this and THEY do that.They really do not!It is all about who wants to invest into you and who sees potential in your name and who will put money into you to make more money for themselves.Do you really think Britney Spears, P.Diddy, J.Lo and other stars do something?Not exactly...They are just lucky enough to have a name that is sellable...And some(like Spears) were even lucky to have been picked out to be made famous...
Seriously, what is America's problem?Every celebrity these days open their clothing or whatever line(that is smart on their part business wise) and people buy it just because their name is there(dumb!).Just a famous name on the product does not make it good!
I like Amanda, I think she is very hard-working and I love her for what she achieved and contributed to swimming, but... I also like down-to-earth people and looks like she is getting cocky and Hollywood-like because of her fame ...I respect those who can stay humble regardles of their fame.Michael Phelps is a good example:the kid has everything, but never changed...
Originally posted by Sam Perry
Wow, I have heard everything now. When was the last time you went to Western Europe, Southeast Asia, etc? One of the number one things we export is entertainment and media. Every movie we make and album produced here is reproduced across the ponds any times over. Heck the number one piracy business in China are our movies. By the way, the investor comment regarding Amanda was as equally cynical. Please tell me 1 (just 1) business venture anywhere where there were no "investors" involved to be successful. It takes money to make money, that is a simple fact of economics. If you want to make a case she is only making money because she is marketable (i.e. she looks good) then I might be willing to see a point, but to contend she has done nothing and is doing nothing but giving in to "investors" is a ludicrous statement.
Ok, first of all I am originally from Russia, having arrived to the USA 4 years ago,second -I visit Europe every year, including my home country.Yes, american movies are all over the place there, but that is not what I am talking about!You will not see clothing or cosmetics lines of American stars out there....
But my point was misunderstood, too.I do not see how by creating a cosmetics line Amanda Beard contributes to swimming.Hey, I did not say that is wrong of her to do that...I did say it was smart business-wise...I just want her to stay "cool" if you know what I mean, not corrupted by money, 'cause it looks like she is getting very cocky(you get that vibe by her comment about how laughable the idea of "getting a real job" sounds to her , etc.
I just hate to see her go Anna Kournikova path, I used to worship Anna, she was a nice down-to-earth girl and of course it is AWESOME to take advantage of the business side if it is coming to you, but she got very arrogant because of the money and fame, heck she was even suing her parents to get the house from them, which I know she bought, but please ... that is family, how greedy can you be for money, I am sure her parents had a big part in her success...P.S. A lot of russians lost respect for Anna.
And then another example(I am sorry for giving examples of Russian sportsmen) - Alexander Popov.You wouldn't believe what he did for the movement of the sport of swimming in Russia by just his superb personal qualities and dedication to his roots and swimming...He did not have to open any clothing lines or whatnot, which he probably could do successfully, to make swimming popular .He showed that respect and loyalty go a long way.He never had a big head, although he achieved more than enough to be able to "show off".At some time he was offered Australian citizenship which would give him a ton of sponsorship and money, but he refused, saying:"I became famous as a Russian swimmer and I will stay that way".He never abandoned his coach and always says "we" or "us" whenever talking of his achievements.When Gennadi Touretski had to move to Australia, Popov followed...And Popov did not just smash records and show his talent in the pool - he is doing a lot for swimming in Russia by his involvemnet in the Russian swimming committee, he works on ideas, new methods, etc...Now that is a true example of contribution to sport and true sportsmanship...
So what I am trying to say is :I do not care if you try to become successful as an enterpreneur or not(that is very respectful), I just 1)do not like to hear people say how Amanda Beard or whatever other athlete contribute t o their sport by creating their cosmetics line or whatnot, because it just does not make sense, 2)do not like those athletes who get a big head and forget where they came from .After all that is what sport teaches us: hard work, respect, loyalty...
I hate to sound like a jerk, but that has to be the most ridiculous commentary I have read on this board in a long time. Give me a break! I don't understand how people on here can get so cynical about good news. Here we have a swimmer WHO HAS DONE A LOT and wants to do more. She hasn't changed a bit, but comparing what she is doing to Spears, et. al. is a bit of a stretch. Let her have a chance to make a living promoting herself as well as a sport that we all participate in. If you are really "Hooked on Swimming" you would find this article a breath of fresh air. If this is a problem with "Americans" all have to say is that the rest of the world must be just as idiotic, they buy all this junk that we put out more than we do. You tell me who's worse the ones producing it or the ones who buy it?
That article was not about promoting swimming, it does not even come close to it...And the rest of the world - no, it is not as celebrity-struck as America and no, not a lot of junk goes overseas...
All sports have their commercialized stars to various degrees. People like Tiger Woods for golf and Jeff Gordon for NASCAR promote all kinds of products and rake in lots of money doing it. Even though commercialization spoils the ideal image of the pure athlete who only loves the sport, it also brings more attention to the sport. Good or bad, the public responds to flashy commercialization more than to idealism.
Amanda Beard's ventures are probably good for bringing attention the sport of swimming. And she has worked hard in the past to get where she is now, which is more than can be said for a lot of pop stars who just lucked out.
Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming
I do not see how by creating a cosmetics line Amanda Beard contributes to swimming.Hey, I did not say that is wrong of her to do that...I did say it was smart business-wise...I just want her to stay "cool" if you know what I mean, not corrupted by money, 'cause it looks like she is getting very cocky(you get that vibe by her comment about how laughable the idea of "getting a real job" sounds to her , etc.
That's strange, I read that section and had almost the opposite reaction. Beard is aiming for being co-owner of a company, and the business professor is trying to motivate her to aim for a position "better than middle management". That would be like a local coach suggesting Beard should swim with them, because the coach could teach her to make (Masters) short course NQTs! :)
(Hmm... that's not as funny as I intended. I just remembered that the reigning gold medalist for the 50 free had tied for 3rd in his age group at the Indy SCNationals. :eek: :D )
As for the first part... The average Olympic age has been getting older, as more swimmers are continuing to train past college. One point brought up (by Hall at the Racing Club web site, for example), is that most swimmers don't have the resources to train full time. Now we have Beard, who may be in a position to make a living that will support her for life. (No guarantee, many business ventures fail in that first year.) She has stated how much she loves swimming. This could be a real opportunity for her to be able to train at the highest level, for as long as she wants. (And another data point to see how much or how little swimming speed drops off as you age.)
