Now I know why the public does not care about our sport

On the up side he is visibly white with a name even the most uneducated american can pronounce. That said, trying to market him in a light even more appealing to consumers is difficult. Usually the match thing works, but there is virtually noone that can compete against him and have any hope of beating him. He's not likely to change his appearance drastically or his opinions and associations to draw spotlight/attention. Maybe sponsorship from a not often thought of as a running sponsor type company would help. Pepsi, Coca Cola, even Nintendo for the kids or NBC for TV fans. Somebody needs to try some outside the box thinking. Just my 2 cents......

Your two cents is worth a lot more than two cents. You are right.

If someone wants to sponsor/market him then he will appeal to whoever they want him to.

Isn't it about time young kids had a good, healthy, positive sports role model? Not that there aren't any, but there are too many negative role models.

It's going to be difficult to market Ryan Hall, seeing as how America is still a little uncomfortable with the whole gay thing. I mean I know shows like Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy were big hits, but we're talking about an athlete here. The good people of the US like their male athletes to be masculine.

That's soooh untrue darling dear...

good kid but hollywood just cant get behind a bible thumper...

Who cares about Hollywood? "Bible-thumpers" are a huge market.

Unless Ryan wins gold, it's going to be tough to market him outside of the running world. The average American thinks that Olympic medals hang on trees. If he's being heavily marketed, without having won major international competitions, Americans will not be interested. Major endorsements are largely a "winner take all" market. Unless you transcend your sport, you're mostly stuck endorsing related products, or regional stuff.

Woods, Armstrong, Sharapova...these are the types that can promote anything. Hall still has a long way to go before reaching that level.

The guy has lived a short and isolated life. How exactly are Americans supposed to relate to him?

If you think the public interest in our sport rests on people like Ryan Hall, then forget it. You're better off betting your ad budget on Dean Karnazes.

Professional endurance athletes are not exactly renowned for being interesting people. They spend all their time training and that's all they can talk about. It's the great shame of professional sport: lots of people with amazing talent who are so sealed in their self-created bubbles they know squat about the real world. Bring back amateurism.

Umm... the majority of athletes are still amateurs.

Runners are notorious loners, even more so than other athletes. Runners with interesting personalities are few and far between (just look at letsrun). But Ryan Hall is exceptionally dull, even by that standard. Somebody like Meb is a lot more gregarious - AND he's an Olympic medallist. If he can't appeal to the public, who can? Of course he doesn't fit the wejo ideal of being the Great Hope of Western Civilization...

hahaha, funniest thing I've read all day

Reader wrote:

do you personally know Hall? If not, shut the f*ck up.

And for all those posting on this thread that call him gay, too bad you little homos are disappointed. Jealous little homo bitches trying to bring one of our greatest runners down.

Zatopeksmonkey wrote:

Professional endurance athletes are not exactly renowned for being interesting people. They spend all their time training and that's all they can talk about. It's the great shame of professional sport: lots of people with amazing talent who are so sealed in their self-created bubbles they know squat about the real world. Bring back amateurism.

That is their real world. To excel at most anything takes extreme focus. He may not be as well rounded as you appear to think you are, but he's a hell of a lot faster. Somehow I don't think he'd want to trade places with you.

Then why did he marry a guy?

It's a well-known side effect that EPO takes away your personality. Look how much nicer Lance is now that he's cut back.

The best is Mottram. It'd be a huge shot in the arm if he won in Beijing.

The best WHAT is Mottram?

In any case, he already gets a huge amount of attention from the Australian press

Reader wrote:

do you personally know Hall? If not, shut the f*ck up.

And for all those posting on this thread that call him gay, too bad you little homos are disappointed. Jealous little homo bitches trying to bring one of our greatest runners down.

Hey, I'm just saying it will be difficult to market him. It's the truth.

I really wish people wouldn't interview athletes who have absolutely nothing interesting to say. Watching them race or play is fun. But listening to these guys talk about it? God. "Well, uh, my training has been going well and I feel good. I hope I run a good time. I'd like to place top 3 but we'll see what happens....der uh, blah blee duh blah". I mean I understand that there is only so much you can say about training and racing, but there are some athletes out there who know how to give an interesting interview and have a vibrant personality (Craig Mottram comes to mind). Let's just the leave the rest of the guys to what they do best, running, and keep the microphone out of their faces.

Ryan Hall is very fast and has very cool hair, but unfortunately it seems like he's a recruiter for a religious cult.

You know who else is a boring interview? Tiger Woods. Winning makes up for a lot, winning a lot makes up for about everything.

I'm sure a lot of athletes could say a lot of interesting stuff if they wanted to, but they would prefer to just let their performance speak for them.

A lot of them are not going to care if they fail to reach out to an audience who would only be interested if they gave some hotshot interview. If they are running for more than just wanting to see how far they can push themselves, I am sure the people they want to motivate will be inspired by their performance.