Nike, 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 de Janeiro.

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 percent during the Olympics—and that first-rate return even factors in a drop of nearly 3 percent during the Beijing Games in 2008 and a 2.6 percent slide in London in 2012, Bespoke Investment Group data shows.

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