International Olympic Committee crushes knitting group!

More on "ambush marketing" from NPR but the last paragraphs of the article were actually jaw dropping. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found out about a knitting group on Facebook called, "Ravelry," which featured an annual event called the "Ravelympics," that was an unacceptable infringement on the Olympic trademark and the event had to be CRUSHED. Seriously, I kid you not! The focus of the article is essentially that the IOC and the USOC are going to squeeze every potential penny it can get out of every single athlete it can muster even though this financial policy seems so alien to the Olympic movement once you read its Olympic Charter:

Point number-ten of the Olympic Charter first then below that an NPR quote for a stark contrast:

"...To oppose any political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes; ..." 

Peter Carlisle from Octogon told NPR  that "...he's frustrated by the blackout rule. ... As the USOC limits an athlete's ability to raise money, Carlisle says, it's also using that athlete's publicity rights to raise money for itself. ..."  

[NPR Article: Link]

Please note it's the US Olympic Committee doing the suppression of income but the IOC is allowing it to happen.

The money the IOC raises for themselves is in the billions-of-dollars -  Welcome to the glorious world of "Athlete Trafficking." Govenment sanctioned, governments approved.


Perhaps some day an athlete will tell his sponsor, "The second I get off the gold medal podium, run that commercial! Run it everywhere! Run it all over the world. I have proved that I was the best on that day and I don't need a gold plated medal to remember it."