How the USOPC is looking to build Paralympic hype

Olympic excitement seemed at a peak this year. Viewership was up 82% from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, according to NBCU, and use of the term “pommel horse” presumably rose by an even larger margin.

The Paralympics, which are held a few weeks after the Olympics, have also attracted more attention from viewers, networks, and brands. This year, NBCU rolled out what it called “the most comprehensive coverage of the Paralympics in US media history,” and as of Sept. 5, coverage on NBC was averaging 1.32 million viewers, up 49% from the Tokyo Paralympics. Ad sales were also up more than 60% from Tokyo, per NBCU.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has seen a similar increase in sponsorship interest in the last few years, thanks to a concerted effort to boost awareness around the Paralympics, especially in the leadup to LA28, Katie Bynum, the organization’s chief of strategy and growth, told Marketing Brew.

“The overall coverage and conversation is growing, and with that, brand interest is growing, too,” Bynum said. “It’s only going to grow more as a result of hosting the LA games here in four short years.”

Team up

Part of the USOPC’s plan to promote the Paralympics involves pairing it closely with the Olympics—and encouraging sponsors to do the same. Team USA’s brand platform includes both Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and aims to “drive awareness and more understanding of the Paralympics,” Jess Park, chief of brand and fan engagement at the USOPC told Marketing Brew in April.

Some brands took similar approaches to their marketing around the games. Team USA partner Reese’s featured Olympic and Paralympic athletes in its Paris 2024 campaign, and worldwide sponsor Samsung gave every Olympic and Paralympic athlete a special-edition phone to capture “victory selfies” from the podium. Nike continued its “Winning Isn’t For Everyone” Olympics campaign with “Winning is Winning,” which spotlights Paralympiac athletes. During the Paralympics, Nike and the USOPC also announced a one-year career program for athletes focused on disability inclusion.

Toyota, the presenting sponsor of NBCU’s Paralympic coverage, ran six ads featuring 20 Olympic and Paralympic athletes this year, including one revolving around Canadian Paralympic track and field athlete Marissa Papaconstantinou, according to Dedra DeLilli, Toyota North America’s group manager of sponsorship strategy, integration, and activation.

Gold-medal content

Sponsors can play an important role in elevating the profile of the Paralympics, but Bynum said “it’s hard and unfair to suggest to brands that they should figure out how to do this storytelling and activation” on their own.

This year, the USOPC created more content that marketers could support, like the “Making Team USA” content package, which Xfinity sponsored ahead of Paris. That program, which followed athletes through the qualification process, will continue for Milano Cortina 2026, and Bynum said that kind of athlete-centric content has worked well.

For the Paralympics, the USOPC has tapped athletes like Olympic long jump gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall, who’s married to Paralympic track and field athlete Hunter Woodhall, to create content, as well as others including Katie Ledecky. On the day of the Para Opening Ceremony, the Team USA accounts across social platforms saw about an 84% increase in engagement compared to the day prior, according to the USOPC.

“Hearing directly from athletes is a great way to…reach new audiences, even beyond just our own coverage,” Bynum said. “There’s a theme here about putting athletes at the center of our storytelling.”

The long game

Paralympic athletes and governing bodies of para sports—like Olympic NGBs—can benefit from support more often than once every four years, presenting a potential opening for sponsors, Gartner marketing analyst Chris Ross told Marketing Brew.

“There’s opportunity for brands, from an authenticity perspective, to say, ‘Hey, we’re not just putting our name on this or featuring a Paralympic athlete in our advertising during the Olympics, but we’re actually supporting this sport or these athletes all year round,’” he said.

Citi, which sponsors dozens of Paralympic athletes, is the founding partner of an organization dedicated to increasing involvement in para sports, and Toyota, which has been the official mobility sponsor for both the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympics Committee since 2015, upped its commitment to Paralympic athletes in the wake of the pandemic-induced postponement the Tokyo games, according to DeLilli.

“We took immediate action to extend all of our Team Toyota athlete contracts, but at a time when the world was in such a dark place, that didn’t seem like enough,” she said in an email.

The brand set up its US Paralympic Fund in 2021, which offers financial support to all US Paralympians. Since then, the $6 million fund has provided support to nearly 90% of Team USA Paralympic athletes, according to DeLilli. But the space can still use more engaged sponsors year-round, Bynum said. 

“Whether they’re direct-to-consumer brands or B2B brands, there’s just a way to use their media or their reach to drive awareness and engagement, and I think that that can certainly happen more,” she said. “There’s an opportunity to sponsor and storytell with more Paralympic athletes for a longer period of time.”