Alltop.com

It isn’t often you catch wind of an athletic organization feeling the heat of competition from a group of knitters, but the US Olympic Committee appeared to get itself pretty hot and bothered over the activities of the Ravelympics, a group that has knitting competitions during Olympic events.

In a legal threat, the USOC informed Ravelry, the knitting community that organizes the event, that:

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.

An outcry ensued (and, hey, who wants to mess with people armed with knitting needles of various sizes), and the USOC apologized, explaining:

…The letter sent to the organizers of the Ravelympics was a standard-form cease and desist letter that explained why we need to protect our trademarks in legal terms. Rest assured, as an organization that has many passionate knitters, we never intended to make this a personal attack on the knitting community or to suggest that knitters are not supportive of Team USA…

We know who won’t be getting any hand-knit sweaters from Grandma this year, that’s for sure.

Full story at Team USA via Boing Boing.

What’s more American than knitting?

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