US Olympians call for rule 40 to be abolished

UK

Catherine White-Assistant Editor

US Olympic athletes have taken to Twitter to vent their anger over the London Games' strict sponsorship rules that bar them from promoting unofficial sponsors.

Members of the US Olympics team have used the micro-blogging site to rally against rule 40 of the Olympic Charter, which forbids them to advertise their own personal sponsors if they are not approved Olympic partners.

The athletes claim that the rule should be abolished as it is out of date and the restriction on promoting unofficial sponsors results in them directly losing out on compensation.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOGOG) states that under rule 40, ambush marketing attempts will be prevented.

Additionally, it states that other than those permitted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board, "no competitor, coach, trainer or official who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes".

The rule protects the exclusivity of official sponsors who have spent millions on advertising space.

As a result, the athletes posted tweets using the hashtags #rule40 and #wedemandchange on Twitter to abolish the rule, claiming that they should be paid for their time in London.

High jumper Jamie Nieto tweeted, "I am honoured to be an Olympian, but #wedemandchange #rule40 @NBCOlympics. It's time for Olympians to be compensated!"

400m runner Sanya Richards-Ross said, "The majority of track and field athletes don't have sponsors. In the sport, a lot of my peers have second and third jobs to be able to do this. We understand that the IOC is protecting its sponsors but we want to have a voice as well."

The 100m hurdler Dawn Harper posted a photograph on Twitter of her mouth gagged with duct tape with 'rule 40' written on it.

The Track and Field Athletes Association, which launched the campaign, said, "This rule severely limits athletes' rights to market themselves during the Olympic Games.  The IOC continues to grow the scope of this rule, limiting all athlete interactions with outside companies to official Olympic partners. We feel this needs to change."

Taylor Wessing's Adam Rendle said in an emailed statement to IPM, "For as long as the IOC seeks to protect its official partners and sponsors with ambush marketing legislation, the IOC is likely to keep rule 40 in place. The athletes' protests may therefore fall on deaf ears.

"Rule 40 was originally in place to maintain the amateur status of the games. This rationale no longer applies; the Olympics are a heavily commercial enterprise, even though the field of play contains very little advertising. The rule is now in place primarily to protect the official partners' and sponsors' exclusivity around games time, when the risk of ambush marketing is at its greatest."