The International Olympic Committee is facing questions after an injury to American snowboarder Julia Marino, which followed an IOC-mandated change to her snowboard meant to cover up a Prada sponsorship.
Prada is not an Olympic sponsor, and therefore the IOC deemed Marino's gear was not in compliance with the rules. She was told to cover up the logo or use a different snowboard, and she opted to paint over the decal. Marino later suffered a fall during practice, with the distraction over the sponsorship controversy serving a potential cause, per Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Marino later dropped out of the big air event. She won silver in the slopestyle, though not before the IOC demanded she tape over the Prada logo on her helmet.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee has argued on Marino's behalf to the IOC, per McCarthy, that Marino's board is no different than other athletes using Burton and Roxy boards.
“Finally, covering the logo is not a feasible option. The logo is molded to the board and altering it would cause drag and interrupt the surface intended to glide,” USOPC vice president Dean Nakamura wrote. “For these reasons, we ask the IOC to reconsider its position and allow Julia Marino to use the board used during the Snowboard Slopestyle competition.”
Marino addressed the issue on an Instagram story post on her account.
“For everyone asking, the night before the big air, the IOC told me they no longer approved my board even [though] they approved it for slope … They told me I would be disqualified if I didn’t cover the logo and obligated me to literally draw on the base of my board with a sharpie," Marino wrote. "For those who don't know, the base of a board is important for your speed and not meant to have anything on it but wax, having marker and other things on the bottom basically defeats the purpose.
"Anyway, I dropped into the jump to see how the tailbone felt after taking a slam the other day in practice and after my base (was) altered, I had no speed for the jump and wasn't able to clear it several times. Was just feeling pretty physically and mentally drained from this distraction and the slam I took ... decided not to risk further injury even (though) that didn't appear to be the top priority of the IOC."
