The Breakfast of Champions: No Longer a Champion Itself?

It’s still a thrill and an honor for Olympics athletes to appear on the Wheaties box, but their images apparently aren’t doing much to sell the cereal: The 91-year-old brand is lagging behind competitors, with a falling market share that’s now barely 1%, according to the Wall Street Journal. Compare that with another General Mills brand, Cheerios, which has a 12% share. Some 474 athletes have appeared on the Wheaties box, starting with Lou Gehrig in 1934; the most recent are winter Olympians Mikaela Shiffrin and Sage Kotsenburg.