It's All Speedo's Cash For Michael Phelps
For the second straight Summer Olympiad, swimsuit maker Speedo is floating a $1 million prize to Michael Phelps if he ties Mark Spitz's 1972 gold medal record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.
But this time, all that money is going to come out of Speedo's pocket.
Craig Brommers, Speedo's vice president of marketing, confirmed to CNBC earlier today that the company doesn't have any insurance to cover the bonus.
Brommers said that in Athens, Speedo's bonus was insured so that if Phelps -- who eventually won six golds and two bronze -- did win seven gold medals, the company would have only forked over about $300,000.
But Phelps' performance since then has made it hard for any insurance company to see much of an upside in insuring the deal this time around.
"Unfortunately, due to Michael's performance at the Melbourne World Championships and the probability that he might reach that million dollar bonus, Speedo was unable to secure insurance this time around," Brommers said.
He said the company didn't exhaustively try to insure it, believing that the premium this time around would have been closer to 90 percent.
Phelps will wear a new Speedo swimsuit for every single race.
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