So much for the Wheaties box. A new study out of Syracuse has found that female athletes aren't as likely as their male counterparts to find jobs as brand spokespeople – and that when American companies do use sportswomen as spokespeople, they don't use them correctly.

Co-authored by Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University's Falk College, and John Antil and Matthew Robinson of the University Delaware's Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, the study shows that despite women athletes' awesome showing at the London Olympics, their achievements may not translate to lucrative brand contracts off the field.

Using athletes to boost branding is a time-honored technique going back to the late 19th century; tobacco companies upped sales with baseball cards, and starting in the 1910s, stars like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb hawked products like soap, cereal, and Girl Scout cookies. Americans quickly got used to seeing sports stars selling them flour and underpants (…

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This is very cool: a group of high-school camp counselors came up with a way for sightless kids to play tennis. Fifteen tennis players from Snohomish (WA) High School came up with new equipment, and modifications to current gear and rules, including a larger foam "tennis" ball with a rattle in it; an on-court machine that chirps, orienting blind players to the direction the ball should go; lower nets; and letting the ball bounce a few times instead of just once.

Gabrielle Wilson, a varsity tennis player, got a $500 grant from the Snohomish County Sight and Hearing Foundation last year in order to put on a summer camp as her senior project. The camp is now run by high-schooler Amy Stevens. Stevens says that the focus is as much on the kids having fun and improving as on tennis. (What sounds the MOST fun to us is crafting the specialty tennis ball the camp uses: you cut a big foam-rubber ball in half, insert a ping-pong ball full of BBs, and put it back together with fabric tape.)

Y! Sport

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Grabbing a quick bite to go on today's Lunch Trey:

Kim Clijsters, who mounted one of the great post-mat-leave comebacks in sports history, has begun her retirement following yesterday's tight loss to Laura Robson of England. Clijsters was disappointed that her last major bid ended so quickly, but said of 4-year-old daughter Jada, "I think she's going to be excited to kind of have her mom around more, on a more regular kind of basis.''

Erin DiMeglio is having slightly better luck -- she's a QB for her high-school football team, and she's getting some snaps even though she's the third-stringer at the position. The coach, Doug Gatewood, implied that DiMeglio's not the first young woman he's had try out for the team; she's just the first who's really good: "I had a girl try out at wide receiver that couldn't make it through practice and I had a kicker that really couldn't make a field goal, so I didn't keep them. Erin can actually do what we ask of her...she completes the passes I ask, sh

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By Jody Smith

It would have made a great birthday present. Diana Nyad's goal was to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida, across the Straits of Florida, without the use of a shark cage.

Climbing out of the water on the Florida shore would have made a wonderful gift for her sixty-third birthday, which falls on Wednesday, August 22. But this was not to be.

Nyad has tried for the fourth time to swim from Cuba to Florida. For the fourth time she has had to be pulled from the water.

Steven Munatones, editor in chief of the Daily News of Open Water Swimming, and official observer of the swim, said that with the challenges of the Gulf Stream and the weather, the swim had become too dangerous.

From Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida is a distance of 103 miles. After swimming for 60 hours, Nyad had covered about half the distance on her way to Florida, and was within 50 miles of reaching her goal.

According to members of Nyad's support crews, jellyfish had stung her a

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The U.S. Open officially kicks off today, and fashion designers are getting in on the fun -- in their own super stylish way, of course. Anna Wintour is an avid tennis fan (often choosing tennis matches over runway shows during Fashion Week) and so it's no surprise that Vogue commissioned 12 high-fashion designers to create the most fabulous tennis balls we've ever laid eyes on.

Related: Craziest Looks at Fashion Week

Designers like Diane von Furstenberg, Rag & Bone, and Tory Burch transformed plain ole' tennis balls into beautiful pieces of artwork decked out in pearls, lace, spikes, and rhinestones. Our favorite? Peter Som's blinged out creation.

And while these aren't for sale (and wouldn't improve your serve, anyway) we've drummed up some of our favorite high fashion sporting goods that you can actually buy:

Related: Hot Trend: Studs and Spikes

Chanel Surfboard

For the extremely fashionable surfer, these Chanel boards were created as a part

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