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.
Resulted in:
http://www.teamusa.org/News/2012/June/2
Excerpt -
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 apologize for any insult and appreciate your support. We embrace hand-crafted American goods as we currently have the Annin Flagmakers of New Jersey stitching a custom-made American flag to accompany our team to the Olympic Games in London. To show our support of the Ravelry community, we would welcome any handmade items that you would like to create to travel with, and motivate, our team at the 2012 Games.
The definition of 'denigrate' is:
‘denigrate’ - den·i·grate/ˈdeniˌgrāt/
Verb: Criticize unfairly; disparage: “there is a tendency to denigrate the poor”.
Synonyms: blacken - slander - defame - vilify - asperse - malign
So... WHICH party is being denigrated?
