IOC Says It Is \u201cTotally Relaxed\u201d About The Olympic Rings Tattoo - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IOC Says It Is \u201cTotally Relaxed\u201d About The Olympic Rings Tattoo\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Commentary by Casey Barrett The damage control arrived in my Inbox the next morning. The IOC wanted me to\u00a0know that it is \u201ctotally relaxed\u201d about Olympians wearing the rings tattoo\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-04T19:00:44+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tatto-2-1.png\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taylor Brien\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taylor Brien\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Taylor Brien\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/24da59f6501b584c8ca51570b81b296d\"},\"headline\":\"IOC Says It Is \u201cTotally Relaxed\u201d About The Olympic Rings Tattoo\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-04T19:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-04T19:00:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\"},\"wordCount\":724,\"commentCount\":12,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tatto-2-1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"IOC\",\"IPC\",\"Jacques Rogge\",\"Josef Craig\",\"Mark Adams\",\"olympic rings\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"Commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/\",\"name\":\"IOC Says It Is \u201cTotally Relaxed\u201d About The Olympic Rings Tattoo - 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{"id":200322,"date":"2016-05-04T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=200322"},"modified":"2016-05-04T12:00:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T19:00:44","slug":"ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ioc-says-it-is-totally-relaxed-about-the-olympic-rings-tattoo\/","title":{"rendered":"IOC Says It Is \u201cTotally Relaxed\u201d About The Olympic Rings Tattoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Casey Barrett<\/em><\/p>\n

The damage control arrived in my Inbox the next morning. The IOC wanted me to\u00a0know that it is \u201ctotally relaxed\u201d about Olympians wearing the rings tattoo in\u00a0competition. IOC Director of Communications, Mark Adams<\/strong>, wrote that: \u201cthis\u00a0announcement was made by the IPC not the IOC.\u201d The distinction, he said, was that\u00a0\u201cit was an IPC event not an IOC one. They made the decision \u2013 we would be totally\u00a0relaxed for a Paralympian or an Olympian to have a rings tattoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cue the bus, screeching to a halt, as the International Paralympic Committee is\u00a0thrown under it. An interesting sacrifice of an organization that the IOC calls a close\u00a0partner. Indeed, they are in the midst of a multi-year agreement that extends\u00a0through 2020. On the IOC website (Olympic.org), President Jacques Rogge<\/strong> states\u00a0that \u201cthe IOC and the IPC have a long and strong relationship and it is with great\u00a0pleasure that we are able to extend this agreement with the IPC and ensure that the\u00a0Olympic and Paralympic Games continue to be held in the same host cities until\u00a02020. Our continued financial support to the Paralympics shows the Olympic\u00a0Movement is universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continued support\u2026 Yes, well, evidently that does not include support for athletes\u00a0with an impairment and the Olympic rings tattoo in a visible place on their bodies.<\/p>\n

I wrote back to the IOC director that this seemed to place them on a rather slippery\u00a0slope, in terms of the rights of Paralympic athletes. Are the rights of athletes with an\u00a0impairment distinct \u2013 and lesser \u2013 than those of able-bodied athletes? We are\u00a0talking about the same imagery here \u2013 the tattoo of the Olympic rings. A Paralympic\u00a0athlete, Josef Craig<\/strong>, was disqualified for having this tattoo on his body.<\/p>\n

The IOC response to being called out on this was to distance itself in a hurry from its\u00a0close partner, the International Paralympic Committee \u2013 an organization that most\u00a0I\u2019m sure figured was more or less the same entity, or at least very much entwined.\u00a0And they are \u2013 just read President Rogge\u2019s statement on the IOC website. But\u00a0recognizing a PR disaster, they did what large bureaucracies do: They pointed away\u00a0the blame and did their best to separate themselves from the issue.<\/p>\n

At the heart of this debacle is the IOC\u2019s Rule 40, which states that \u201cno competitor,\u00a0coach, trainer or official who participates in the Olympic Games may allow his person,\u00a0name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the\u00a0Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

I get it. The keepers of the Games are highly sensitive about corporate logos. They go\u00a0to great lengths to control them while the flame is lit. But here\u2019s the meta twist: That\u00a0also includes their own corporate logo, the Olympic rings. The IOC protects its rings\u00a0logo extremely closely. It creates quite a pickle when athletes start carrying around\u00a0that logo as a part of their skin. To the athletes that ink-stain on their bodies for life\u00a0is a symbol that is the antithesis of corporate. The rings are about an ideal, of pure\u00a0competition and unity, and also about individual achievement. Advertising? That\u00a0refers to those companies that try to cozy up to the rings and gain some positive PR\u00a0by proximity.<\/p>\n

Yet according to the official that disqualified Josef Craig<\/strong>, \u201cBody advertising is not\u00a0allowed in any way whatsoever, and that includes the Olympic rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this official was from the IPC, not the IOC, and the IOC would like you to know\u00a0that it is \u201ctotally relaxed\u201d about those ubiquitous rings tattoos. Unlike their partner\u00a0organization that leads Paralympic athletes. Apparently, it\u2019s all about the \u201cO\u201d.\u00a0\u201clympic\u201d is in both names, after all. One begins with \u201cPara\u201d, the other with that vowel\u00a0in the shape of a circle. However, you would have been foolish to assume that the\u00a0two were related.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t us, says the IOC. We\u2019re chill and cool and totally relaxed when it comes to\u00a0the rings. That is, until you try to use it without our permission.<\/p>\n

Reprinted from Caps and Goggles<\/a>, by Casey Barrett<\/p>\n

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views\u00a0of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"