Jeff Horwich: For athletes, Olympic success can lead to big-money endorsements. The high-performance competition can also, it seems, be a gateway to Wall Street.
Here’s our senior business correspondent Bob Moon.
Bob Moon: Some athletes could be hearing something else as the Olympic music plays.
Their performance could help ring in a job on Wall Street — and it’s no coincidence you’ll find a number of former Olympians in that rough-and-tumble world.
Ron Mitchell: The amount of discipline it takes to become an Olympic-level athlete means that you know what it takes to be successful.
Former Harvard University athlete Ron Mitchell is the founder of the Alumni Athlete Network, which has placed hundreds of young athletes at major Wall Street firms. He says just like the Olympics, winning on Wall Street can happen in fractions of a second.
Mitchell: Athletes like that type of stimuli, and often need that type of stimuli to excel.
Former Olympians in the financial world include rowers, swimmers and wrestlers. American water polo defender Peter Hudnut is already planning to pursue a career at Goldman Sachs after the London Games, and Mitchell says he’ll be surprised if Hudnut’s the only one making that move.
Mitchell: I would expect a lot of the firms will come calling for this group.
I’m Bob Moon for Marketplace.
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