Frenzied fans covet cool cups

Beer sales soaring, along with demand for hot collectibles

Will Rodriguez put his collectible cup down just for a second, then - swoosh! - it was swiped.

He owned one of the hottest souvenirs of the Rio Games: A plastic Olympic gymnastics beer cup.

"That was a good one," Rodriguez, of Dallas, lamented.

The Olympics has yet another cupping craze - although this one involves the swirling orange, blue and green patterns on a yellow cup that include the name and silhouette of more than two dozen sports.

The most common sight at Olympic venues aren't medals draped around necks, but fans walking around with arms full, fixated on finding the next beer stand and hoarding empty cups.

Fans are chugging - and sometimes just dumping - their half liters of lager simply for the empty cups. Then it's back in line to put another 13 Brazilian reals (about $4) on the growing beer tab.

That totals at least 300 reals for the set.

The cups are suddenly fueling the merchandise machine and have been traded, sold, and even stolen, as fans clamor for hard-to-find sports such as gymnastics and soccer.

About an hour before boxing's Sunday evening session started, fans lined up 25 deep at some beer stands ready to go another round.

The long lines weren't necessarily because of slow pours from the can into the cup.

Once at the front of the line, fans would sort through stacks of cups until they found the one sport they wanted.

"Boxe! Boxe! Boxe!" one fan shouted in Portuguese in his search for boxing.

"No! No!" the server shouted, as he pointed to one of the other stands.

So off the man went, without a beer, with a more pressing mission on tap for the night.