Olympic awards were once the preserve of triumphant athletes showing off their medals, but now all Olympians are getting in on the action by posting videos of themselves unpacking their sponsored gear.
Haul videos (a social media staple where someone typically shows off their recent purchases) have been popping up online with athletes preparing to enter track and field, while courts and fields are moving to TikTok.
Millions of people have been tuning in to see what outfits will be worn in the French capital this summer.
In one, the 400m specialist Alica Schmidt models Adidas skirts and quarter-zip sweatshirts of his team, Germany; in another Australian hurdler Tayleb Willis revels in with his yellow and green Asics t-shirt and the soundtrack of Mr Pot Scraper by BossMan Dlow.
The enthusiasm of the athletes, and the number of people tuning in to watch them, speaks to the style credentials of some of the on- and off-duty uniforms of these games, with Paris 2024 being the biggest event of the year. Called “the greatest fashion Olympics of all time”especially since it’s sponsored by the world’s largest fashion conglomerate, LVMH. The best and worst uniforms have already received plenty of attention online, with the Mongolian team’s exquisitely embroidered uniforms by Ulaanbaatar-based couture brand Michel and Amazonka widely regarded as the winners.
Travel videos aren’t the only content being shared ahead of the Games. Olympic athletes have been posting vlogs of their trips to the Olympic Village from around the world. American tennis player Coco Gauff shared A mouthful of airplane food that didn’t look bad before taking a nap.
Inside the village, visits to the rooms have lifted the curtain on the accommodation. Members of the Danish handball team revealed that they have decorated their bare white walls with pictures of themselves and the Danish flag. The sleeping arrangements have been of particular note, with Tom Daley sharing Video of the cardboard beds, complete with duvets from Paris 2024while Naomi Osaka gave him her bed a quick test, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look that few will ever see for themselves, sometimes dirty laundry and all.
The content can also be comforting. “Being among so many different cultures is the best.” says Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns in one of her videos In which you can hear the chant of another team in the building next door, suspected to be from the countries of Oceania. “The Olympic side of TikTok makes me cry,” wrote one commenter. “Absolutely living for the prospects of the Olympic Village 😩🔥🖤,” wrote another.
Team USA rugby player Ilona Maher was “the breakout star of the Tokyo Olympics on TikTok,” according to Rollo Goldstaub, the app’s director of sports partnerships – she now has more than a million followers and her content has racked up more than 95 million likes. “She just did incredibly well at being herself, being creative, being inspiring, being joyful and being fun,” he added. Maher has already been creating loads of content in 2024, including videos that build on the idea of the Olympic Village as a Island of love villa. “A new bombshell enters the villa this week,” says one of Maher’s videos as she models her new Skims kit.
These Olympics could be considered TikTok’s first true Olympics. Launched a month after the 2016 Rio Games, it was at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — held in 2021 due to a Covid delay — that the platform first gained recognition. Now, it is “a real part of the sports industry and ecosystem,” Goldstaub said. Sports is now one of the top five categories from an audience perspective on TikTok. “It’s definitely thriving,” he said.
The trend goes beyond Olympic athletes. According to Holly Gilbertson, managing partner at Pacer, the sports team of leading youth cultural agency The Digital Fairy, “Sport in general is experiencing a ‘chronically online’ moment – everyone is in their running era, showing off their tennis spirit after the Challengers or losing themselves in Twitter gossip (X) about WoSo (women’s football).” She continued: “Olympic content seems an inevitable evolution of this general direction.”
Many participants hope to capitalize on this fortnight of hyper-attention. “These athletes, and particularly those in less-funded sports, now face explicit pressure, either from their own federations or from the sponsors they want to attract, to go out and share their stories on social media,” Gilbertson said. “Unlike a World Cup where the men or women are very well known, some of these athletes might be passed on the street and not know who they are,” Goldstaub said. “The next two-week period is that opportunity to propel them into stardom.”
The Olympics have a truly global impact. In an increasingly fragmented media environment, it is a rare case of monoculture. “You have the ability to create a really large audience. Having that influence and that way of speaking to so many people is in itself enormously valuable,” Goldstaub said.
According to him, this attention could be commercialised in the future, “either by working with their own sponsors or by working on branded content. There will be plenty of opportunities for athletes to try to generate revenue from that audience they’ve built.”
“From a brand perspective, it’s an incredible opportunity to reach a new, young audience directly on their terms,” Gilbertson said.
She added: “It’s worth noting that TikTok has been a huge driver behind the explosive growth of women’s sport, from participation to fandom, from the Lionesses to the Women’s National Basketball Association. The down-to-earth style of content, behind-the-scenes energy and playful relatability attracts audiences who haven’t always seen themselves in mainstream sports culture.”
“Basically, it’s a perfect storm of audiences with an intense hunger for sports content and athletes ready and willing to meet that demand,” Gilbertson said. “The backstage of the Olympics is the perfect setting.”
