The Athlete vs. Sponsor Carousel

As the year is coming to a close several high profile athletes are posting their “thanks to my sponsor but my contract didn’t get renewed” messages on Instagram. Freetrail tries to capture all that movement in their “Free Agency” list.

Notables include:

• Tom Evans – left Adidas Terrex
• Francesco Puppi – left Nike
• Allie Ostrander – left Normal

One person missing (just added) from that list is Courtney Olsen (- left Hoka), who just set the 50-Mile World Record at Tunnel Hill this fall. In her Instagram farewell posts she minces no words and shares her displeasure with how she felt treated by her previous sponsor.

There goes my second prediction for 2025: athletes recognize that they are way more dependent on their sponsors than on event organizations putting on races and start calling out brands, rather than race organizations in the hope to get better employment/sponsorship considerations.