Julia Marino runs afoul of IOC sponsorship rules
BEIJING — The Olympics safeguards its sponsors. In Beijing, you will see a good deal of Coke and Visa logos, but no Pepsi or American Specific wherever. The IOC goes so far as to put swatches of dark tape about the logos of non-sponsor vehicles applied as Olympic taxis and non-sponsor bogs applied as, properly, Olympic bogs. You just do not get in between the Olympics and the sweet, continuous flow of sponsor money.
Snowboarder Julia Marino, a silver medalist in slopestyle, discovered that lesson the difficult way prior to Monday’s huge air competitiveness. Marino works by using a board with a large Prada emblem on it, and that didn’t sit perfectly with the IOC, which necessary her to deal with the emblem or risk disqualification.
Marino took to her Instagram site, noting in a Tale, “For anyone inquiring, the evening before the huge air, the IOC told me they no for a longer time accepted my board even tho [sic] they authorised it for slope. They told me I would be disqualified if I did not go over the brand and obligated me to virtually attract on the foundation of my board with a sharpie.”
The IOC, Marino mentioned, contended that the Prada sponsorship violated IOC’s Rule 40, which governs the sponsorships an athlete can endorse though at the Game titles. Marino presently covered the Prada emblem on her helmet although successful silver, and now the IOC was requiring her to colour around the brand on the board.
At an Olympic degree, even the tiniest alterations subject, and Marino reported the markered board felt unfamiliar below her feet.
“For these who don’t know,” Marino wrote, “the foundation of the board is essential for your speed and not intended to have something on it but wax, owning marker and other points on the base in essence defeats the intent.”
Marino mentioned the board “felt off” and just after experience “unsteady” in follow, she bailed out of the occasion to steer clear of further damage.
“I dropped into the jump to see how the tailbone felt just after having a slam the other working day in observe, and just after my foundation [was] altered, I experienced no pace for the soar and wasn’t capable to obvious it various moments,” she wrote. “Was just experience really bodily and mentally drained from this distraction and the slam I took. I was tremendous-hyped with how I did in slope, my most important party, and decided not to hazard additional personal injury even tho [sic] that did not appear to be the prime precedence of the IOC.”
USOPC vice president Dean Nakamura appealed the selection to the IOC, contending that covering the brand would alter the board’s core features.
“[C]overing the brand is not a feasible option,” Nakamura wrote. “The brand is molded to the board and altering it would lead to drag and interrupt the area intended to glide … [W]e request the IOC to reconsider its posture and permit Julia Marino to use the board utilised all through the Snowboard Slopestyle opposition.” The appeal was denied.
Marino at the very least went household with a person medal … and a very good, if unpleasant, story for why she didn’t get a shot at a next.
