{"id":352,"date":"2012-06-22T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/?p=352"},"modified":"2012-06-22T07:02:24","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:02:24","slug":"us-olympic-committee-apologises-after-demanding-end-to-disrespectful-knitting-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/us-olympic-committee-apologises-after-demanding-end-to-disrespectful-knitting-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"US Olympic Committee apologises after demanding end to “disrespectful” knitting competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the world’s biggest Olympic committees has apologised<\/a> after it demanded that a knitting and crochet community change its biannual “fibre craft events” because it felt that they were “disrectful to our country’s finest athletes”.<\/p>\n

Fak’s thoughts reported earlier this week<\/a> on the US Olympic Committee’s letter to the organisers of the Ravelympics, which sees people from all over the world creating craft items in a range of categories during the period of the Olympics. The competition has been running every other year since 2008.<\/p>\n

The letter read:<\/p>\n

“We believe using the name \u201cRavelympics\u201d for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.\u00a0 In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country\u2019s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But following a backlash, the committee sent an apology, saying that:<\/p>\n

“we sincerely regret the use of insensitive terms in relation to the actions of a group that was clearly not intending to denigrate or disrespect the Olympic Movement.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, the letter does not appear to retract the request to stop the competition in its current form, explaining:<\/p>\n

“We are totally dependent on our sponsors, who pay for the right to associate with the Olympic Movement, as well as our generous donors to bring Team USA to the Games.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Comments on the official statement<\/a> suggest members of the community are not happy with the apology. Naz Fabec felt that the explanation that “The letter sent to the organizers of the Ravelympics was a standard-form cease and desist letter” disingenuous:<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty sure a standard cease and desist letter doesn’t contain the terms “denigrate.” In fact, I’m certain of it. Here is a link to a standard cease and desist letter, specifically in regards to trademarks: http:\/\/minnesotaattorney.com\/cease-desist-trademark-infringement-template-example-sample-form\/.<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/p>\n

“If you add in personal commentary to a letter, own up to it. Don’t say it’s just a standard form and try to shrug it off.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Others see the invitation to supply handmade items to the US Olympic team as insulting and revealing an ignorance of the international nature of the community.<\/p>\n

Thanks to GingerKnits<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter for flagging this up to HMI Olympics.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the world’s biggest Olympic committees has apologised after it demanded that a knitting and crochet community change its biannual “fibre craft events” because it felt that they were “disrectful to our country’s finest athletes”. Fak’s thoughts reported earlier … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[176,174,173,177,175],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}