Olympic snowboarders who wanted to pay tribute to fellow Olympian Sarah Burke during competition have been told they can’t due to IOC rules.
Australian snowboarder Torah Bright tweeted a photo on Instagram on Friday saying she is at the Olympic Games in part to honour her friend Sarah Burke.
“I ride with a Sarah sticker on my snowboard and helmet always,” wrote Bright.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), have banned the stickers, saying they are a political statement.
Rule 50 of the IOC’s Olympic Charter says, “No form of publicity or propaganda, commercial or otherwise, may appear on persons, on sportswear, accessories or, more generally, on any article of clothing or equipment whatsoever worn or used by the athletes or other participants in the Olympic Games…”
Bright is not happy about the decision.
“WOW. Sarah is a beautiful, talented, powerful women, who’s spirit inspires me still. She is a big reason why skier pipe/slope are now Olympic events,” she wrote.
Burke, a four-time X-Games champion, was one of the people who successfully lobbied the IOC to add the halfpipe and slopestyle skiing event to the Olympic program.
She died following a training accident in Utah in 2012. She was born in Barrie, Ont. but grew up in Midland and eventually made Squamish, B.C., her home.
She also married fellow freeskier Rory Bushfield in Pemberton, B.C. in 2010.
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