After he won gold in the Olympic triathlon last year, Simon Whitfield had to add an Inc. to the end of his name.
"Well it's Maple Spirit Inc. for tax purposes," Whitfield, 26, said with a chuckle. "But it's really Simon Whitfield Inc."
His rise to fame has been quick. Endorsement deals started rolling in almost as soon as he crossed the finish line. But Whitfield has come to realize that fame has a way of turning a normal life upside down.
Whitfield is in Toronto for a World Cup triathlon at Exhibition Place on Saturday. The event will be his final one before the world championships in Edmonton on July 21 and 22.
Before the Summer Games in Sydney, Whitfield was a typical amateur athlete, struggling to balance training with other things and making only enough money to get by.
Barrie Shepley, who was the head coach of the triathlon team in Sydney and has known Whitfield for a long time, can remember driving with him to training sessions in Whitfield's old car that had no back window.
But after he won the medal, things picked up -- Whitfield found himself on the side of a Cheerios box -- and the money started to roll in.
He would soon have enough to buy a house in Victoria and a good car.
"I didn't get carried away and say I wanted to make as much money as I can," Whitfield said. "I set a certain goal."
There were other perks. Last November he had an opportunity to have dinner with Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first men to climb Mount Everest, and his wife at a fundraising function. It was something that fascinated him, and the three talked about ambition and success.
But with the improved lifestyle also came increased demands.
He has always loved talking to young students about athletics and he has visited 30 schools since his Olympic victory.
But he has been called by an endless number of charities and organizations asking for his support and attendance at functions.
Doing everything while staying competitive is impossible, and the constant calling makes him weary at times.
"People are so passionate about their event or their cause and that's great, but they can get blinded by that," he said, looking to the floor and running his hand through his dirty blond hair as he sips a cup of capuccino. "They don't realize that I have things to do too.
"For me to go to Thunder Bay for two days just because they are having a reception for me, I can't do it."
Whitfield admits that he has trouble saying no and he tries to fit as many of the events in as he can.
"If I didn't, my mom would kick my ass," he said, a charge his mother Linda laughingly denies.
"I was never one of those hockey Moms out there with the cow bell," she said from the family's home in Kingston, Ont.
Whitfield has enlisted the help of the sports management conglomerate International Management Group (IMG) to help plan his time and both Shepley and his mother agree, he has not let success go to his head.
He still uses the same bicycles, from a small bike shop in Montreal, that he used before he won the gold, even though he has been approached by bigger companies to use their bikes. He also uses the same vitamins, even though he has been offered more money to switch.
"I had serious doubts on whether he would be able to get over the initial hangover of this most amazing gold medal performance and everybody wanting a piece of him," Shepley said. "But Simon has handled this really well."
So is the Olympic gold worth the lifestyle?
To answer that question, Whitfield remembers a school he used to volunteer at in Victoria before the Olympics.
When he came back, there was a big poster on the wall that caught his eye as he walked in the building. It congratulated him and welcomed him home.
And all the students would come up and talk to him about sports, he recalls.
"Yeah, it was worth it."