The International Olympic Committee's loosening of iron-fisted rules around sponsorship gives Canada's Olympians more commercial wiggle room in Tokyo this summer.
Under pressure from athletes, the IOC now allows for a more liberal interpretation of rules that govern the way athletes engage with their personal sponsors during an Olympic Games.Rule 40 of the IOC's Olympic charter ensures market exclusivity to companies who pony up hundreds of millions of dollars to have their brand in the Olympic Games.
"A female wrestler in Canada is a pretty niche market," she told The Canadian Press. "We're not Usain Bolt or even Andre de Grasse. We get two weeks every four years to have the spotlight shone on us.Jane Roos, the founder of Canadian Athletes Now, or Canfund, has raised over $40 million from the private sector for athletes since 2003.
Rule 40's wording is now "competitors, team officials and other team personnel who participate in the Olympic Games may allow their person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games in accordance with the principles determined by the IOC Executive Board."
"This was something we had to pay close attention to, not because of what was happening in Germany, but because of what was important to athletes and their partners and their ability to commercialize themselves during the most important period of their athletic careers," Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said.
"We feel really good about the balance we've struck here," Shoemaker said. "The COC is 98 and a half per cent funded by the private sector through nearly two dozen marketing partners and some of the greatest companies in this country. "It's once every four years we get a chance to be seen, so yeah, being able to utilize that opportunity a little bit more certainly is welcomed."
Think Nike's Michael Jordan covering his jacket's Reebok logo with an American flag while standing on the basketball podium in 1992.
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