Michael Phelps - the half-man/half fish, superhuman swimming machine. His record-breaking Beijing Olympic haul justified the hype greasing the international presses.

It may be a while-off yet for Phelps but what does an ex-olympian do when they reitre? Sprint off into the sunset? A life of coaching kids? For us mere mortals retirement arrives after 40 years of a fairly prosaic working life.

According to a survey by Bayfield Search and Selection, the legal and technical recruitment firm, Olympians are more likely than the average person to find success in the business world.

The discipline required by the two are much the same. Organisations want the same thing that a top athlete has in droves. Qualities like self-confidence, motivation, dedication, and the desire to win are all traits of those at the pinacle of their respective fields.

Menzes or Ming Campbell the sprinter-turned-advocate, turned liberal democrat leader was once the fastest white man on the planet. He held the 100 metre record from 1967 to 1974 but his career since retirement brought him equal notoriety.

Adrian Moorhouse, the British swimmer who dominated the sport in the 80’s is now the managing director of his own company, lane4 people. Colin Jackson, a silver medalist in the 88 games, went on to found the multi-media production company Red Shoes.

For those with the talent, dedication, and luck to make that Olympic dream a reality, the life of a professional athlete can be on a par with a Hollywood heavyweight. Phelps already has companies like Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton and AT&T sponsoring him and off the back of Beijing his profile has exploded. On that great barameter of public opinion, Facebook over 1,316,509 people have officially declared themselves fans so far. Incidentally this is just a whisper more than the number of followers Barack Obama has on Facebook. Could the wrong guy be running for president?

But it isn’t all plain sailing (or swimming) for ex-Olympians. The majority of Olympians don’t go on to become professional athletes and which means the majority are not going to get the multi-million pound endorsements. For some retired athletes every proceding Olympics acts as a opportunity to simply rake in more mullah.

Mark Spitz, the man whose record breaking medal haul was smashed by Phelps, is now being sponsored by Botox. The campaign, entitled, “Your Presonal Best” promotes Botox as a muscle paralyzer and wrinkle blitzer. Maybe it’s all that salt water: it ages the skin