Cup of Cha
This is China

When I first saw that the IOC was “allowing” blogging by athletes during the Beijing Olympics, I didn’t think much of it. However, the more I read, the more absurd and offensive I find the entire plan. It is an attempt to muzzle the very people who put money into the IOC’s greedy little palms. If it weren’t for the athletes, most of whom will not win medals and will return to their countries to look for average-Joe jobs, the IOC and Beijing would have no platform to make money or tell the world how fantastic modern China is.

In Athens Athletes were not “sanctioned” to blog, but many did so anyway. In 2008, the IOC realized that there is not much they can do to stop Olympic athletes from blogging, so they decided to “allow” it, and laid out guidelines:

The IOC said blogs by athletes “should take the form of a diary or journal” and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games. They also should not write about other athletes.

“It is required that, when accredited persons at the games post any Olympic content, it be confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience,” the IOC said…

Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain…

Domain names for blogs should not include any word similar to “Olympic” or “Olympics.” Bloggers are, however, urged to link their blogs to official Olympic Web sites.

Only empty suits at the IOC should be allowed to profit from the Games! If you’ve actually put blood and sweat into your efforts then you should make sure you link to the official websites. This is so unbelievably shameless!

If I were an Olympic athlete–and mind you, I’m still considering getting into shape and joining this summer–I would simply set up a blog and say that I am a “track and field athlete” (or something equally vague)and write whatever the hell I want. Remember most of these athletes are winning medals anyway. What are they going to do once you put your name on the blog after your events? (In fairness this won’t work that well if you’re writing, in say, Cambodian. There’s a chance they might be able to figure which of the two team members are writing in that case.)

So here’s the Cup of Guidelines that I’m laying out for Olympic athlete blogs:

1. Don’t use blogspot. It is blocked in China
2. Don’t put your name on your blog, unless you’re someone really important with whom no IOC member will mess. I’m looking at you Gilbert Arenas, who has a great blog. (Ironically I just went to his blog where he has announced he won’t be at the Games! He says it’s because of [a team decision due in part to] an injury, but I demand an inquiry into whether this was blog-related!)
3. Write about anything you damn-well please! They say writing should “be confined solely to [athlete's] own personal Olympic-related experience.” Isn’t that anything that you experience or think about during the Games?
4. If you don’t want to do it anonymously, announce to media outlets that you are blogging, and let them know if you get blocked. Does the IOC really want to let the world know they are censoring speech in a host country famous for censoring speech?
5. If you don’t want to set up your own blog or want to the cloak of anonymity, I encourage you to contact me at Josh (at) cupofcha.com. I will happy give you a pseudonym and host your commentary on my site. I know the odds that any athletes are reading this are slim, but I’m putting this out there because the beauty of a blog is you can say whatever you damn well please!

Tags: censorship, ioc
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