Talk About An Incentive

For the second Summer Games in a row, Michael Phelps stands to take home a $1 million dollar prize from Speedo should he tie Mark Spitz’s Olympic record of seven gold medals set back in 1972. It’s a pretty cool incentive package much like those given to NFL players.

This year prize is the same, but the source of the money isn’t. At Athens in 2004, Speedo was able to insure the prize policy such that had Phelps won seven gold medals (he ended up with six) the swimsuit maker only would have had to shell out $300K. But given Phelps’ continued utter dominance Speedo couldn’t find an agency willing to issue a policy!

Said Speedo’s VP of marketing Craig Brommers, “Unfortunately, due to Michael's performance at the Melbourne World Championships and the probability that he might reach that million dollar bonus, Speedo was unable to secure insurance this time around.”

This is awesome. Insurance companies take deals like this all the time. But with Phelps, no insurance company sees a reasonable upside to propping the bonus. As part of the deal, Phelps will wear a different Speedo swimsuit for each race.

My prediction: as long as Phelps shaves that Fu Man Chu before diving in the pool at the Water Cube (sickest stadium ever!), he’ll take seven gold medals. He’s good, but he can’t afford that drag.