Olympics give athletes a chance to win gold — and also cash in on their short time in spotlight

PARIS (AP) — Noah Lyles wasted no time. After winning the 100 meters at the Paris Olympics, he promptly declared what he wanted the most as the newly anointed Fastest Man Alive.

“ I want my own shoe,” he said. “I want my own trainer. I’m dead serious. I want a sneaker. There ain’t no money in spikes, there’s money in sneakers. I feel like for how many medals we bring back and the notoriety we get, the fact that hasn’t happened, that’s crazy for me. I feel like that needs to happen.”

Athletes come to the Olympics seeking gold medals, but for some, there are more lucrative prizes at stake. The two-week competition provides a global stage for competitors to be noticed and potentially cash in and extend their 15 minutes of fame.

Few outside of gymnastics had ever heard of Stephen Nedoroscik before the Paris Games. After helping the U.S. men to their first team competition medal in 16 years, the bespectacled "Pommel Horse Guy” should have eyeglass maker Warby Parker banging on his door.

American runner Kendall Ellis found herself stuck in a porta potty at the U.S. track trials, and she landed a sponsorship deal with toilet paper maker Charmin.

“It was just the perfect fit,” Ellis said.

French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati found offers coming his way — granted, from porn company CamSoda — after he was eliminated from the Paris Olympics because he couldn't clear the bar. The reason? It had gotten stuck on his crotch and knocked down, resulting in a 12th-place finish.

The agent for American rugby player Ilona Maher can barely catch her breath in Paris, where Maher has boosted her initial popularity from three years ago at the Tokyo Games all the way to bona fide stardom. Maher's savvy use of social media attracted attention in Tokyo but is now at a global level — she has nearly 5.5 million followers across her social media accounts and almost 121 million likes across all her TikToks — and has cultivated a brand.

“A lot of people see her popping off right now and having this viral moment, but we've been working really strategically to be able to position her to have a lightning in a bottle moment,” said agent Rheann Engelke of Range Sports.

A tracking service found that Maher saw a 257% increase in Instagram followers from June 30 to July 30, as she led the United States to its first medal, a bronze, in rugby sevens.

With her crowning athletic achievement and burgeoning fame, the offers began pouring in. Maher's platform is focused on body positivity, women empowerment, promoting rugby and encouraging young girls to play sports, but her sharp sense of humor and social media use has brought in dozens of opportunities — including some in the entertainment space.

“What's really special about Ilona is going into this Olympic moment, she knew exactly who she was, she knew what her message was and she knew the kind of brands she wanted to align with,” Engelke said. “We can take the process a little slow and really look at who is aligned with her, who is the right brand partner. It's certainly hectic right now, but we will be somewhat strategic and slow because it is vitally important for Ilona being exactly who she is.”

T. Bettina Cornwell, the Philip H. Knight Chair at the University of Oregon and head of the department of marketing, believes an athlete must go beyond building a social media platform to have real staying power. The big deals go to Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, or retired swimmer Michael Phelps. The athletes from lesser known sports must understand the audience.

“An athlete captures an audience at the intersection of sport performance and a life story. This is not to say that top performing athletes cannot have top follower numbers on social media, but to truly capture the heart of an audience, storytelling is essential,” Cornwell said. “The more relatable an athlete is as a person, the more the audience will enjoy their unrelatable elite athletic performance — ‘I don’t know how she does it, but I love watching her!’”

But the world today is fickle and meme-driven, said John Baick, a professor of history at Western New England University, who noted there's no way to predict how the audience will react to any athlete or viral moment. In the case of Nedoroscik, he was trending before he had even gotten onto the pommel horse for his calm demeanor as he silently sat and waited, Clark Kent-style, wearing his glasses.

“In our age of memes, it is your look, it is your glasses, it is your character, and there's no way of knowing in advance what's going to attract people. Will people make fun of him for that? Or will people find it endearing?” Baick said. "This is where one person on Instagram can change someone's fate. And if that one person is liked enough, and we are definitely in a meme culture, the case for a bronze medal for someone quirky is ultimately going to be worth more than a gold medal for someone in a sport no one cares about.”

There is an ability for athletes to attract corporate sponsorship outside of the Olympics, and in some cases, even before they've reached the elite level.

Raynald Aeschlimann, the president and CEO of Omega, said the company that serves as the official timekeeper of the Olympics does the same for the Youth Olympic Games, “so the stars of the future are never far from our attention."

“That’s where our partnership with Noah Lyles began,” said Aeschlimann, who touched on what it takes for an athlete to be noticed by a brand. “It’s about the personality. Who has confidence? Who has that determination to go right to the top? Sometimes, we recognize excellence when we see it.”

Aeschlimann also disputed the notion the athletes are only relevant every four years during the Olympic cycle.

“The spotlight is not just every four years. These athletes inspire the next generation throughout their careers — and often beyond,” Aeschlimann said. “We work with legends like Michael Phelps and Allyson Felix, whose influence is immortal. That’s the power and worth of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Athletes have a chance to etch their names in history.”

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Anthony Ammirati, of France, competes in the men's pole vault qualification at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Anthony Ammirati, of France, competes in the men's pole vault qualification at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

United States' Ilona Maher, bronze medalist in the women's rugby sevens, poses for a portrait with her medal at Champions Park during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Thibaud Moritz/Pool Photo via AP)

United States' Ilona Maher, centre reacts as she stands on the podium with her bronze medal during the presentation ceremony Rugby Sevens at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Stephen Nedoroscik, of the United States, celebrates after winning the bronze medal during the men's artistic gymnastics individual pommel finals at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Gold medalist, Noah Lyles, of the United States, poses on the podium after the men's 100-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

NEW YORK (AP) — In what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.

A U.S. official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The Iran-backed militant group blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. Details on how the attack was executed are largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.

Here's what we know so far.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group's movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.

A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the exploded devices were from a new brand the group had not used before. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, did not identify the brand name or supplier.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday it had authorized its brand on the AR-924 pager model and a company called BAC produced and sold the pagers. Further information on BAC wasn't immediately available.

Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, explains smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to the simpler technology of pagers.

This type of attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies, said Reese, who previously worked as an intelligence officer, adding that survivors of Tuesday's explosions are likely to throw away "not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”

Even with a U.S. official confirming it was a planned operation by Israel, multiple theories have emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press explained how the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.

Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal.

By the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery," said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.

A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.

“A pager has three of those already,” explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”

After security camera footage appeared on social media Tuesday purporting to show one of the pagers explode on a man’s hip in a Lebanese market, two munitions experts offered opinions that corroborate the U.S. official's statement that the blast appeared to be the result of a tiny explosive device.

“Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,” said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.

This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He adds that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, notes that Israel had been accused of carrying out similar operations in the past. Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.

It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.

The sophistication of the attack suggests that the culprit has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese explained. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.

And it's likely the compromised pagers seemed normal to their users for some time before the attack. Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst with over 37 years experience in the region, said he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of Tuesday's pager attack. He said the pagers were procured more than six months ago.

“The pagers functioned perfectly for six months," Magnier said. What triggered the explosion, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices.

Based on his conversations with Hezbollah members, Magnier also said that many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They came to the conclusion that between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.

Jenzen-Jones also adds that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting" — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.

“How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.

Hezbollah issued a statement confirming at least two members were killed in the bombings. One of them was the son of a Hezbollah member in parliament, according to the Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously. The group later issued announcements that six other members were killed Tuesday, though it did not specify how.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”

Associated Press journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei

People donate blood for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)