Marketing | Sports Sponsorships
Nike Dumps 3x Olympian After Discovering Her Sex Work
The story of Suzy Favor Hamilton and the implosion of her sponsorships
Suzy Favor Hamilton was getting into constant fights with her husband. She’d developed a strange attachment to her daughter, refusing to put her down. She was acting irrational and was prone to huge mood swings and fits of anger.
Her husband thought it might be postpartum depression and urged her to get help. She eventually did and was put on anti-depressants. This seemingly therapeutic decision would be the harbinger of great chaos in her life. And would eventually cost her all of her sponsorships.
How Things Escalated and Then Exploded
Like many eventual Olympians, Suzy showed beaming early promise in her sport.
She was a distance runner, who swept her events at the local level. Eventually, she was a national champion and, at one point, the most decorated collegiate athlete in history. Her accomplishments could fill paragraphs. She is one of the only U.S. women to run 1500 meters in under four minutes. Notably, she competed in the three Olympics, her final appearance at the Sydney Games in 2000.
