{"id":6524,"date":"2004-08-20T19:27:31","date_gmt":"2004-08-21T02:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/08\/20\/swifter-higher-stronger-quieter.html"},"modified":"2004-08-20T19:27:31","modified_gmt":"2004-08-21T02:27:31","slug":"swifter_higher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/20\/swifter_higher.html","title":{"rendered":"Swifter, Higher, Stronger … Quieter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The motto of the Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius<\/a><\/em>. But Olympic athletes aren’t only expected to Do Their Best, they’re expected to keep quiet about it<\/a> — at least until the games are over.<\/p>\n

Athletes may be the center of attention at the Olympic Games, but don’t expect to hear directly from them online — or see snapshots or video they’ve taken.
\nThe International Olympic Committee is barring competitors, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other websites.
\n[…] The IOC’s rationale for the restrictions is that athletes and their coaches should not serve as journalists — and that the interests of broadcast rightsholders and accredited media come first.<\/p>\n

I think it’s the latter reason that’s the center of this. Media make or break the Olympics from an image standpoint, as do broadcast rights sales from a financial one. Putting a gag order on athletes helps ensure that the media get to cover all the stories.<\/p>\n

Participants in the games may respond to written questions from reporters or participate in online chat sessions — akin to a face-to-face or telephone interview — but they may not post journals or blogs until the Games end Aug. 29.
\nTo protect lucrative broadcast contracts, athletes and other participants are also prohibited from posting any video, audio or still photos they take themselves, even after the Games, unless they get permission ahead of time. (Photos taken by accredited journalists are allowed on the personal sites.)
\n[…] The Olympic guidelines threaten to yank credentials from athletes who are in violation as well as to impose other sanctions or take legal action for any monetary damages.<\/p>\n

Ch-ching.<\/em> Those aren’t just the Olympic rings chiming …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The motto of the Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius. But Olympic athletes aren’t only expected to Do Their Best, they’re expected to keep quiet about it — at least until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28388,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/20\/the-usoc-proves-once-again-how-dickish-they-are.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":0},"title":"The USOC proves once again how dickish they are","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Jun-12 7:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"These guys make Disney look like a set of warm, fuzzy pushovers. \u00a0Not 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38404,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/08\/the-movement-to-move-the-winter-olympics-from-sochi.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":1},"title":"The movement to move the Winter Olympics from Sochi","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Aug-13 6:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen Fry is receiving a lot of press for his impassioned open letter to the IOC, asking them to move the 2014 Winter Olympics, coming up in six short months, away from the Black Sea Resort of Sochi. \u00a0(George Takei made a similar statement at\u00a0http:\/\/goo.gl\/R1bmn9 and a petitition at\u00a0http:\/\/goo.gl\/mcH0jx has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6545,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/19\/breaking_record.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":2},"title":"Breaking records","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Aug-04 10:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Records get broken. That's almost a truism in the world of athletics, but is the pace of record-setting slowing? Are athletes reaching the natural limits of human achievement? But for...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27354,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/11\/its-fun-for-boys-and-girls-alike-except-when-the-girls-cant-play.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":3},"title":"It's fun for boys and girls alike! Except when the girls can't play.","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Apr-12 11:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's fun for boys and girls alike! Except when the girls can't play.Saudi (along with Brunei and Qatar) says it will not be sending any official Saudi female athletes to the Olympics, though it seems to leave open the possibility of allowing the IOC to invite some unofficial ones themselves.Screw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45623,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/02\/its-the-olympics-ioc-not-mount-olympus.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":4},"title":"It's the Olympics, IOC, not Mount Olympus","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Oct-14 1:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Aside from the very high costs of hosting the Olympics (venue construction, etc.), all for dubious economic benefit, the International Olympic Committee seems determined to turn off applicants by including host city requirements for the IOC that rival a Rolling Stones contract:- Cars and drivers for IOC members, with special\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24095,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/27\/bhopal-causes-potential-london-olympics-embarrassment.html","url_meta":{"origin":6524,"position":5},"title":"Bhopal causes potential London Olympics embarrassment","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Nov-11 4:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bhopal disaster continues to haunt Union Carbide's buyer, Dow Chemicals -- sort of like it continues to haunt the victims and their families. Shame, that. #ddtb Embedded Link London Olympics in crisis as India threatens boycott Indian athletes are threatening to boycott next summer's London Olympics in an extraordinary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}