This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.
It wasn't like Michael Phelps hadn't done well for himself by the time he got into the swimming pool at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was pulling in between $4 and $5 million a year after winning six gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics. And was already a sports marketer's wet dream, so to speak.
But then he went and broke Marc Spitz's 36-year record by winning eight gold medals, and the real race was on: to break out as the first $100 million Olympian.
Or at least that's what his managers and agent were saying. Measuring the precise wealth of sports stars is something of an art. Most of their great wealth comes from corporate endorsement deals, which are often heralded more as approximations than exact hard figures.
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