Oliveira world’s 17th most marketable athlete

“There is also recognition of the huge growth potential in Paralympic sport, with Alan Oliveira poised to be the poster boy for Rio’s Games in three years’ time.”

Brazilian Paralympic sprinting champion Alan Fonteles Oliveira was named to SportsPro magazine’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes list for 2013.

Coming in at No. 17, SportsPro saw Oliveira’s 200m T44 victory over Oscar Pistorius in the Olympic Stadium marked a watershed moment for Paralympic sport, raising its commercial success in recent months and fostering rivalries among some of the world’s best para-sprinters.

SportsPro wrote that Oliveira’s name is actually bigger now in Great Britain than in his native Brazil, but that Caixa Economica Federal will put 120 million reals toward Brazil’s Paralympic ambitions over the next four years to help the 21-year-old and his teammates succeed.

SportsPro editor-in-chief David Cushnan said of the list: “There is also recognition of the huge growth potential in Paralympic sport, with Alan Oliveira poised to be the poster boy for Rio’s Games in three years’ time.”

At last month’s IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oliveira proved he’s no fluke, breaking his own Brazilian record in the 100m T44 in a time of 10.95. He will next head to Manchester, Great Britain to compete in the 2013 BT Great City Games on 25 May.

Brazilian football player Neymar tops the list of 50, followed by Argentinian football player Lionel Messi, Irish golfer Rory McIlroy and American football player Robert Griffin III.

The full list of the World's 50 Most Marketable Athletes, plus comprehensive commercial analysis of each and every athlete, detailing their inclusion on this year’s list and explaining their ranking, is available in the June edition of SportsPro and at www.sportspromedia.com.