When Victorian marathoner Liam Adams appeared on national television, celebrating his hard-fought 2024 Olympic qualification, he wasn’t wearing a sponsored shirt.
He wore a high-vis jacket from Winki Solar, the Geelong-based solar panel installer he calls his employer.
Here’s what that appearance on The Project — and Adams’ choice of apparel — says about the life of elite Australian athletes, who balance their sporting careers with employment in the small and medium-sized business sector.
Many global sporting superstars count on sponsorship money and advertising deals to supplement, or surpass, their competition earnings.
But not every elite athlete can use those earnings to train and compete full-time, meaning many high performers balance a gruelling sporting schedule with external employment.
Adams, 37, is one of those athletes: while racking up thousands of kilometres of running a year, he serves as site foreman and electrician for solar panel installers Winki Solar.
The three-time Olympian runner has enjoyed sponsorship deals in the past, but their absence has not dampened his competitive efforts.
In 2018, after the end of a sponsorship deal, Adams completed the Melbourne Marathon in a classic yellow-and-navy tradie singlet.
Even so, Adams is open about the challenges of competing at the elite level against sponsored athletes.
After finishing in third place at the 2023 Gold Coast Marathon, in the fastest-ever time by an Australian man on home soil, Adams said his next block of training would be self-funded.
“I had to dig deep into my savings and I’ve maxed out my annual leave, so it’s back to being a sparkie for a while I reckon,” he said.
“I don’t think many of those guys on the top 10 list have ever been non-funded or not supported so I guess I’m a bit different to them, hey?”
Adams’ employment came into the spotlight in May when a surprise change to Olympic qualifying requirements threatened his spot at the Paris 2024 Games.
The runner, who thought he would qualify for the Olympic marathon based on world rankings, was surprised to find his spot was bumped.
Of the 80 male runners selected for the event, 10 would come from under-represented sporting federations; Adams, placed 74th in global rankings, was suddenly out of the picture.
Winki Solar launched a petition soon after, calling on World Athletics to reconsider how it fits ‘universality places’ with runners who qualified by the world ranking system.
Adams then appeared on national television sporting his Winki high-vis, raising the issue’s profile — and drawing eyes to his employer.
World Athletics reversed course, granting Adams his spot on the 2024 starting line.
The result: jubilation from Adams and Winki, and another valuable spot on primetime TV.
It also came with a shout-out for his employer, and its willingness to give Adams the time off to compete on the world stage.
Adams has since completed weeks of high-altitude training in preparation for the Games, with Winki’s full support.
But major brands hoping to piggyback on his success should tread carefully.
Last week, Adams shared footage of himself spray-painting a fleet of running shoes black, obscuring their logos for his training runs.
The message: if a brand wants to be associated with his success, it ought to pay up, and match the support shown by his day-to-day employer.
SmartCompany has contacted Winki and the Australian Olympic Committee for comment.
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Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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