Nike and upstart Under Armour go for Rio stock gold

It’s Nike vs. Under Armour in the competitive quest for Wall Street-style Olympic gold in Rio.

Nike’s swoosh has become synonymous with the Olympic Games and the athletes that wear its apparel and footwear. In fact, in the past eight Olympics since Nike became a public company in the early 1980s, shares of the swoosh brand have posted average gains of nearly 6% during the Olympics — and that first-rate return even factors in a drop of nearly 3% during the Beijing games in 2008 and a 2.6% slide in London in 2012, Bespoke Investment Group data show.

But Nike, which is an official Olympic sponsor in Rio this year, will be racing against upstart rival Under Armour in the head-to-head race for best stock performance at this year’s Rio games.

MORE OLYMPICS: Our coverage of Rio

In its only two head-to-head Olympics stock return competitions, Under Armour fared worse than Nike shares in 2008 in China when its shares fell 3.6%, vs. a drop of 2.9% for Nike. But Under Armour’s 2.9% gain at the London games four years ago easily topped Nike’s loss of 2.6%.

In the stock race, Under Armour, which gets a key endorsement from U.S. champion swimmer Michael Phelps, is trailing Nike, which will be dressing American athletes on the medal stand, after the first day of trading since the Rio games kicked off Friday night. Under Armour shares fell 0.7% Monday vs. a gain of 0.2% for Nike.

It will be fun to see which brand can claim gold in the clash for stock market supremacy during this year’s Olympics.