These guys make Disney look like a set of warm, fuzzy pushovers. Not only are the obsessive about anything that even sounds like "OLYMPICS" (next up: insisting the town fathers of Olympia, Washington, change their town name), but then you get something like this:
The USOC is responsible for preserving the Olympic Movement and its ideals within the United States. Part of that responsibility is to ensure that Olympic trademarks, imagery and terminology are protected and given the appropriate respect. We believe using the name “Ravelympics” 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. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work."
Yeah, go ahead, laugh at the skill, dedication, and physical finesse it takes to knit. "Disrespectful"? "Denigrating"? "Unappreciative"? Get lost, idjits.
(h/t +Amanda Helstrom
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2 Million Knitters with Pointy Sticks are Angry at the US Olympic Committee
The US Olympic Committee just sent a cease and desist letter to Ravelry.com for a member-created activity held every two years called Ravelympics. Namely, they declared that the usage of Ravelympic……
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Not to mention that many of the items knitted or crocheted during Ravelympics are donated to either Olympic athletes or good causes (such as chemo hats), and are done while watching and cheering the Olympics!
*Here from the embedded link*
Not to mention that the “entire lifetimes” these athletes have been training for is but a small fraction of the time so many of the fiber enthusiasts have been working at honing their craft. (not me – I’m a baby knitter!)
I particularly loved the way knitpurlgurl put things…
” While I understand that Ravelry should respect trademark and change the name of the Ravelympics to something else, I do not like the assertion that knitters coming together from all over the world to participate in friendly competition, while promoting the Olympics is somehow disrespectful to athletes. And the notion that knitters from all over the world, coming together for events, could not possibly promote education, culture, respect, world peace, and harmony as the Olympics do is just absurd. Wherever global tragedy strikes, knitters are lending a helping hand with hand knit toys, blankets, hats, mittens, scarves, prayer shawls, and the like. They sell patterns on Ravelry to benefit victims of global atrocities and natural disasters or to bring light to illnesses. They come from such varied
backgrounds on Ravelry and use knitting as a way of connecting our cultures. Shame on you, US Olympics Committee, for writing a letter that could’ve merely stuck to the trademark infringement issue, but chose to insult millions of men and women for whom knitting is not a frivolous distraction, but a way to create, connect with others, and give back.