Woods scandal benefit US Olympians

The competition of enterprises has begun for endorsement gold with the 2010 Vancouver Games ended. The Honolulu Advertiser latest news pointed: Tiger Woods' loss could be an Olympian's gain.

After the Tiger Woods' sex scandal broke out, there sponsorships, Gatorade, AT&T and Accenture, dropped him. Sports marketers believe Woods' stunning fall from corporate grace could boost the prospects of the most marketable Winter Olympians. The potential winners are: the USA's Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Anton Ohno, Julia Mancuso, Shani Davis, Bode Miller and Evan Lysacek; Canada's Sidney Crosby and Joannie Rochette; and South Korea's Kim Yu-Na.

After the end of the Olympic Winter Games, only a few Olympians could pick up big-money deals. The rest are usually ignored until four years later, they again show up in the Winter Olympics. But Woods sex scandal is adding a new dynamic. His disloyalty to his wife could make sponsorships drop mainstream athletes and hire Olympians. It may be a safer bets, although swimming star Michael Phelps is an exception, he was photographed smoking a marijuana pipe.

Founder of 21 Marketing Rob Prazmar said:" The Woods saga has made sponsors are very concerned, and they stay away from those who could be problematic. But an Olympian is a very saft bet, 99 percent of them are role models."

White got the gold medal again in the snowboard halfpipe, he became the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver the most marketable star. Baker Street Advertising executive creative director Bob Dorfman said, his endorsement earnings could be over $10m.

"He not only appeals to the X Games generation but their parents," Dorfman says. "He's kind of edgy but wholesome. Given the Tiger Woods story these days, that's very appealing to marketers."

Brandon Steiner, chief executive of Steiner Sports Marketing, agrees about White, who now gets an estimated $7 million a year from sponsors such as Target, Red Bull and Oakley.

"He's the rock star," Steiner says.