Most marketable distance runner?

Mo Farah easily. He is going to win a Gold medal for the host country and is one of the nicest guys in the sport.

Nick Symmonds or Andrew Wheating, if one were to win gold. Both have personality, looks, and are not scrawny.

Obviously Ryan Hall. Hence the high profile Vizio endorsement.

While I like Wheating, he doesn't really have looks. I would say Solinsky. He's a good-looking guy, is probably the biggest long distance runner in the world in terms of height and weight, and has that sort of edgyness to him. Though Rupp may be our best distance runner bar Lagat, he doesn't have any marketability. Scrawny, looks feminine, and if the non-running community found out about his throng of health problems... damn.

most marketable

Webb

Lagat

Fernandez

Least Marketable

centro

wheating

rupp

symmonds

acosta

/thread

Pre... just ask Nike.

Dudes...it's Ryan Hall. The saw the guy on a TV box at Costco. He's all over Nissan ads. He's got the christian crowd roped in as well. I don't see any other distance runner on a box when I'm shopping.

I had a poster of Jim Ryan wearing a "Post Cereal" singlet that I got sending boxtops to Post Cereal company when he was about at the end of his road in the mid 70s.

I was in Jr. High, and I thought grape nuts was a venereal disease.

Once she turns pro.....JORDAN HASAY.

Dean K.

Someone who was born and raised in Oregon. Odd looking mutts from Wiconsin or England look funny in ads and are actually a detriment to the image of the company.

crazy person wrote:

Dudes...it's Ryan Hall. I don't see any other distance runner on a box when I'm shopping.

The proof is in the pudding.

Objectively, it's Ryan Hall. With women, it's Kara Goucher.

(Limiting myself to Americans and the American market; obviously it would be Geb in Ethiopia, etc.)

Symmonds

Hall

Centro (High school girls like him)

Ritz (women have told me he's hot)

Solinsky

Any decently good looking female.

cvcvcv wrote:

Dean K.

If you go by who has earned the most money in endorsement and appearance fees, then this very well could be correct.

Delilah DiCrescenzo

She's hot, smart, although not the best female runner we got, she's perfect for commercialization.

ALSO she already has her own theme song...

Current American

Lopez Lomong. Currently in a Visa ad on the national television networks narrated by Morgan Freeman. A movie about his life is a possibility.

Here to tell ya wrote:

Once she turns pro.....JORDAN HASAY.

I've never heard of her.

For the men you need someone attractive, so no twigs. But I think a bigger factor is that you need someone who isn't so nice. We need someone who gets pissed when there records are broken or they have a bad race, someone who trash talks and then delivers. Get someone who creates controversy and is in it more for themselves than "Furthering American Distance Running" and you will get marketability.

For the girls just get someone who is pretty fast, attractive, positive attitude, and does good interviews.