Want selfies with Phelps, Bolt and Co? Olympic superfan offers some tips

Olympic superfan Brent Folan is known for snagging selfies with sports superstars.

ST PHOTO: Alphonsus Chern

SINGAPORE - Strutting along the Esplanade Bridge, Brent Folan was hard to miss. Not while he was in his stars-and-stripes onesie that helped him go viral at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In the get-up, the 30-year-old American became an overnight sensation - almost literally - in Brazil for snagging selfies with sports superstars. Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Simone Biles, you name 'em, he has a picture with 'em.

One of Folan's most prized selfies, the one he took with sprint star Usain Bolt. PHOTO: BRENT FOLAN

His exploits were covered by The Wall Street Journal - which dubbed him the Forrest Gump of the Rio Games - and he was later even interviewed on Good Morning America, one of the biggest breakfast talk shows in the United States.

"It wasn't the plan, not at all," he said of his selfies, in an interview with The Straits Times. "I had always collected autographs growing up, but it's more personal with a photo. Autographs would be cool, but these photos will last forever."

As it turned out, they also changed his life. Within months, he left his job at a limestone mining company in Texas to take up a sponsored offer to travel the world. That eventually led to how he ended up in Singapore during the pandemic.

Preparation is key

While he admits a good chunk of his success at getting selfies in Rio was being at the right place at the right time, Folan says it was not sheer dumb luck.

The sports nut - he has attended the National Basketball Association Finals, baseball's World Series, and the National Football League's Super Bowl - had started laying the groundwork for Rio as far back as 2013. He treated it as meticulously as any athlete would for the Games.

In 2014, he applied to be a global volunteer for the Games - organisers were looking for 50,000 from around the world - and was selected after a two-year process with several interviews along the way. Volunteer credentials would prove to be a big help to access in Rio, said Folan.

His enterprise did not end there.

Eight months out, he cold-called companies asking for sponsored clothing in exchange for the rights to his photos in Rio - and hit the jackpot with his now trademark onesie. The goal, he said, was for people to know where he was from "from miles away".

"I took it very seriously, because I knew (Rio) was going to be a big moment in my life," said Folan, on his preparations. "Only I didn't realise how big."

'Put yourself in the right place'

Eye-catching threads, though, only do so much. You need a thick skin too to be successful in getting close to sports stars, said Folan.

"You need to have the confidence to act like you're supposed to be in places you're not," he said with a cheeky grin. "Never break the rules, but you can sometimes bend 'em."

For example, at the opening ceremony in Rio, he made sure he was among the first to get into the stadium after the gates opened, and with "no shame" slid into one of the best seats in the house.

The area of the seat he occupied, turned out to belong to billionaire Warren Buffett. The octogenarian tycoon was "super nice", said Folan, and let him sit there until his other friends showed up. When they did, Folan took his leave - but not before grabbing that all-important selfie. Folan didn't care that the shot was dark, blurry and that one can barely make out Mr Buffett's face.

It was dark, but that didn't stop Folan from trying to grab a selfie with billionaire Warren Buffet. PHOTO: BRENT FOLAN

Over subsequent days, he also managed to take selfies with the American gymnastics team dubbed the "Final Five", Serena Williams and numerous other sports stars. For all his success though, he needed a bit of extra help to get a snap of his "white buffalo" - Phelps.

Folan with the victorious US gymnastics team in Rio nicknamed the "final five". PHOTO: BRENT FOLAN

The day before his flight back, he decided to extend his trip and turned to social media to make an appeal for sponsors to cover the remainder of his trip.

Budweiser offered him tickets to Bolt's 100m final race - which he estimated cost US$2,000 ($2,655) - and beef jerky brand Krave arranged his appearance on Good Morning America, where Phelps photo-bombed him in a moment he described as "unreal".

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"The whole Rio experience was the perfect storm, it really was," he reflected.

"But keep in mind, it was three years' worth of preparation. Was I incredibly lucky? Absolutely. But in a sense I made my luck, because I put myself in that opportunity to make it happen as well."

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Tokyo plans dashed

After Rio, Folan left his job to take up an offer by online website InspireMore to travel the world and document his experiences like he did in Rio. Over 412 days, he ran with the bulls in Spain, glugged beers at Oktoberfest in Germany, hiked in Patagonia and dived in the Great Barrier Reef.

His tie-up with InspireMore ended in early 2018 but Folan continued to travel frequently, relying on a combination of his own savings, and his investments in the stock market. In all, he has been to over 100 countries and all seven continents.

He returned to Texas in 2019 but planned to travel some more before joining his Australian girlfriend who was working in Singapore. His itinerary had him down for the Tokyo Games last year before he and his girlfriend settled down in Australia.

The pandemic put those plans off kilter.

He arrived on a tourist visa which he had to renew multiple times since March 2020, but has been on an Employment Pass since January this year, doing contract work for a tech company. He plans to return to the US to see his family soon.

Tokyo Games organisers have closed the event to overseas spectators, so Folan will not be in Japan, but he vowed: "For sure, you will see this onesie - I might be holding on to a couple of kids by then - in Paris 2024 and in Los Angeles 2028."

Though he has to skip Japan, Folan vowed he will return with his onesie to the Olympics.ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

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