The books had a certain power because the portraits they rendered were undermining the public image of the smiling, contented athlete — one whose contract demands were inevitably played in the press as "greedy".
The 31-year-old, who has also won the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, along with the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays – he won silver in the 100m butterfly – has also looked a far more contented athlete in Rio; fatherhood clearly suits him yet his competitive urge remains undimmed.
In return for contributing content, the athletes themselves get to promote their own sponsors, charities and other activities – so that, for example, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki's page is being used to promote her affiliation with Adidas.
One of the really sad parts about this is ESPN, in the business of writing and airing compelling content about athletes who have fallen victim to institutionalized racism, has been manipulated into censorship of one their employees speaking truthfully in her private life. .
When asked to categorize the content created by athletes, Messler simply described that the content created by athletes is first-person storytelling — and not designed to replace traditional sports media, which focuses on stats and scores and analysis.
"These are assets – content – that our athletes control," David Rone, co-head of C.A.A. Sports, the division of the talent agency that represents athletes, told The Times.
"These are assets — content — that our athletes control," Mr. Rone said.
It's a totally unscientific estimate, but I'd say that around 40% of Snapchat content produced by athletes is some variation on them shouting a lyric like "I Milly Rock on any block" straight to camera.
GoPro's early success came from getting their cameras into the hands of people who capture compelling content namely extreme athletes.
SportsLine notes in its prospectus that it has entered into various licensing, royalty and consulting agreements with "content providers, vendors, athletes and sports organizations," and SportsLine will have to pay for these agreements.
