CNBC Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell posted a recent entry in his blog on “The 25 Most Marketable Olympians“.

Call us crazy, but you’d think the strategy would be to have an official site in place prior to the Games to capitalize on any buzz and medal achievements the athlete might get. Especially when you’re talking this opp only comes around every 4 years.

Call us even more crazy, but if i was a company paying an athlete even only 5 figures (and knowing that online is the only 24/7/365 marketing channel to publicize my association – sponsors get that point right?) I would either take over that athlete’s online presence or be damn sure they had a suitable one up and running.

So we thought it would be a good idea to ck which of the top 10 athletes from Darren’s list have an online presence/strategy. As of 9:15AM (CST) on 8.24:
1. Phelps – site had zero mention of his 8 gold medals or any news of Olympics
2. Bolt – no official site
3. Liukin – site had all up-to-date info on olympics and her medals.
4. Jingjing – no official site
5. Rice – no official site
6. Johnson – site had all up-to-date info on olympics and her medals.
7. Kexin – no official site
8. Torres – site had video of olympic interviews
9. Adlington – no official site
10. Xiang – site had all up-to-date info on olympics.

So i’d say 3 out of 10 had a passing grade. Makes you wonder what the agents and for that matter the companies that sponsor them are thinking.

Update: Phelps has redirected MichaelPhelps.com to a profile page on SwimRoom.com.