Author

Chris Dunlop

Imagine, for a moment, you're Portia Woodman-Wickliffe at the Olympics in Paris.

You've just clinched gold in rugby sevens for New Zealand. As you step off the podium, medal around your neck, you glance at your phone.

In the span of two weeks, your social media following has exploded by over 42,000! That's more than the entire population of Taupo, suddenly tuned into your every post and story.

But here's where it gets interesting: a few spots down the list, there's Zoe Hobbs. No medal to her name, yet she's amassed nearly 20,000 new followers. What's going on here? Is Olympic success on the field translating directly to social media stardom, or is there something else at play?

Quantifying the Formula for a medal

Here is a quick formula to quantify how an Olympic medal can boost an athlete's social media following:

Followers Gained = 2380.52 + 5469.18 × (If the athlete won one Medal)

Note in this case we have only analysed the 2 week period that the Olympics were on for. So the athletes might well have gained even more followers in the weeks following the Olympics.

Essentially, winning a medal equates to an average boost of 5469.18 followers.

Medal Power Amplifies Social Reach

Not surprisingly, medal winners saw some of the biggest jumps in followers. The data clearly shows a strong correlation between podium finishes and social media growth:

• Portia Woodman-Wickliffe topped the list with over 42,000 new followers after winning gold in rugby sevens.
• Her teammate Michaela Blyde was close behind, gaining over 31,000 followers.

This demonstrates how Olympic success can rapidly expand an athlete's platform and influence.

A single golden moment can translate to tens of thousands of new fans overnight.

Breakout Stars Don't Always Need Medals

Interestingly, some of the biggest follower gains came from athletes who didn’t medal but still captured public attention:

• Sprinter Zoe Hobbs gained over 19,000 followers without medaling, the 3rd highest increase overall.
• Rower Robbie Manson added nearly 11,000 followers without medaling.

This suggests that compelling stories and memorable moments can resonate with fans even without reaching the podium.

Clearly having the first female sprinter at the Olympics in 50 years from New Zealand was a big deal.

The Pole Vault Team

One of the most interesting findings from this analysis is the social media following of the pole vault team

The special final that saw 3 New Zealanders competing in the pole vault final led to significant social media growth.

• Eliza McCartney: 9,113 followers.
• Imogen Ayris: 13,168 followers.
• Olivia McTaggart: 14,863 followers.

Remarkably, these three pole vaulters collectively accounted for 37,144 new followers - about 15% of the total follower gain across all 59 New Zealand Olympians analysed.

This shows the special appeal of shared success of having multiple athletes from the same country competing in a final.

To put this into perspective

• Canoe sprint legend Lisa Carrington, who took home an incredible 3 gold medals, added nearly 7,500 new followers.
• The pole vaulters were 5,7, and 10 on the list of follower gains.
• There was only 4 medalists that earned more followers than the pole vaulters.

Can we quantify the $ value

Now this is purely for fun, but if we were to put a dollar value on the followers gained, we could use the following formula:

From this website the rates seem to be as follows:

• $10 for each 1,000 followers gained (and this would be for each post)
• $50 for each 1,000 followers some of the larger followings.

For our top three athletes, this would equate to an additional amount per post of:

• Portia Woodman-Wickliffe: $500-$2,000
• Michaela Blyde: $300-$1,500
• Zoe Hobbs: $200-$1,000

This is cumulative to their existing followers so Zoe Hobbs has 168,000 total followers which is anywhere from $1,680 to $8,400 per post.

Total Social Media value

So then if all athletes were to do one post per month each that was sponsored, then the total net gain of the social media following would be:

• $30,000 - $150,000 per year

Remember, this is a very rudimentary analysis, and it only covers a subset of our Olympic team.

Also remember the significant brand value in being an Olympian. Some athletes continue to gain followers for years after their Olympic success.

This also is only for one social media platform, and some athletes have significant followings on other platforms.

Full Table

Conclusion

The data clearly shows that Olympic success can have a significant impact on an athlete's social media following.

Notes on the Data

• The data was collected from the athletes' Instagram accounts over the two-week period of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
• We only used publically available data, so some athletes may have gained more followers on other platforms.
• The data was only if an athlete had a business account and then if they had a record of follower counts prior to going into the Olympics.
• At the time of publishing this, the Paralymic data was not available, but we will look to do a similar analysis for the Paralympics.