[sureLoss]

https://www.tsn.ca/agents-say-2018-o...ments-1.989770

Canadian women’s national hockey team forward Meghan Agosta zipped around the streets of her Montreal neighbourhood in a black BMW 325i convertible during the months before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Thanks to endorsement contracts with CCM Hockey, Procter & Gamble and Hilton Hotels – not to mention a marketing deal with BMW that provided her with a sports car (and snow tires) for 18 months – Agosta brought in more than $80,000 a year from endorsements, pitching products as she boosted her profile across the country.

Four years later, it’s a different story.

Now 30, Agosta is a veteran of three Olympic Games with a job as a Vancouver police officer following a move to the West Coast. She would seem to be a compelling partner for corporate Canada. Yet other than her five-year-old CCM Hockey deal, Agosta doesn’t have any other endorsements, said Brant Feldman, her California-based agent.

For at least the past several decades, one of the main storylines in every Olympics is the often spirited debate over which athletes will manage to convert their medals into endorsements dollars. The chance to win marketing deals can be life-changing for athletes, many of whom scrape by in the years leading up to the Olympics.

With this year's Games being held in South Korea, athlete agents said landing endorsement contracts was always going to be complex, since Olympics held in North America tend to draw higher TV ratings and greater local media attention.

Yet in the days after the NHL in April said it would not sent players to Pyeongchang, agents held out hope companies with traditional NHL ties might funnel marketing dollars to female hockey players such as Agosta or athletes in other sports.

That hasn’t materialized, several athlete agents said in interviews. Instead, many Canadian athletes have struggled to build up an endorsement portfolio.

Prominent Quebec-based agent Marie-Anik L’Allier said her client Marianne St-Gelais, a speed skater who had a national endorsement with Coca-Cola during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Under terms of that deal, Coca-Cola featured St-Gelais in ads that aired on TV and in cinemas, used her image on in-store displays, and put her signature and silhouette on special-edition Coke cans.

St-Gelais won a silver medal on Canada’s relay team in Sochi and last year won three more silvers at the world championships. St-Gelais has no national deals ahead of the 2018 Olympics.

Kind of sad. For many of these athletes, endorsements tied to the Olympics are one of the limited opportunities they have to get financially compensated for their dedication to their sport.