He’s the “eight” wonder of the world!
Here is the iconic first photo of a bare-chested, medal-clad Michael Phelps doing his best Mark Spitz impression – sporting an Olympic-sized grin as his eight golds dangle from his neck. The photo – taken inside an ancient temple in Beijing on Sunday night – will grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, which hits newsstands tomorrow.
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The smiling champ – with his hands on his hips – appears under the headline, “The Alltime Olympian Michael Phelps.”
“This one being the first [photo] of him with all eight medals, we hope that our cover will stick in everyone’s mind,” SI’s managing editor Terry McDonell said yesterday.
Phelps’ pose is reminiscent of the well-known 1972 photograph of Spitz with his seven gold medals draped across his chest.
Phelps, who also beats Spitz, 5-3, on the number of SI covers on which he’s featured, posed in front of a bright-red Chinese screen.
Spitz’s famous photo – which never appeared in a magazine but was shot for a poster – netted him $1 million.
Although Sports Illustrated did not pay Phelps for the photo, the 23-year-old swimmer could duplicate the pose for various other companies in the hopes of making money off it, experts said.
Calendars, trading cards and posters with Phelps showing off his medals could net him $10 million.
For Phelps, the chances of pocketing boatloads of money from a similar photo would put him in the same category as Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who have made millions selling their pictures of their babies.
“He has a pretty high cachet at the moment,” said University of Oregon prof and marketing expert Robert Madrigal.
Phelps, who will travel to London later this week to promote the 2012 Summer Games there, has won 14 gold medals – the most of any Olympian – with eight coming last week.
He already has top endorsements on board – such as Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton and AT&T – and made $5 million alone last year.