The Summer Olympic Games are always a major marketing moment thanks to the way they combine elite sporting performance with entertainment, culture and community

The COVID-19 pandemic momentarily dulled the shine of the Olympic Games in 2021, as health restrictions led to a more muted outing in Tokyo. Now, however, the Olympics are back in full force, with Paris 2024 set to be the biggest global sporting event since the 2016 Rio Games.

This year’s Olympics present a huge opportunity for brands, perhaps more so than ever before. That’s because there are more ways than ever to reach engaged Olympics audiences. Official sponsorship (of the Games themselves or of national teams) still remains the surest route to make a splash, and to that point, $1 billion in sponsorship revenue has already been secured. But in addition to these marquee sponsorships, the International Olympics Commission has relaxed rules governing individual athletes’ ability to endorse brands during the Games.

As a result, we can expect to see more direct social media interaction between athletes, brands and fans via social platforms in Paris, including on TikTok, which was still a more niche curiosity in many markets back in the days of the 2021 and 2022 Games.

Kantar’s Sports Monitor Athlete Reputation Tracker indicates that Olympic athletes, past and present, remain highly desirable options for brands looking for sponsorship opportunities, with Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Suni Lee all making the list. And new names are sure to join their ranks during this summer’s fortnight, to the benefit of brands agile enough to link up with Paris’s rising stars.