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21st August 2024
02:09pm BST
Paralympians with an Olympic ring tattoo could be banned from competing at the Paralympic games.
With the Olympics well and truly in the past after two weeks of sporting excitement and excellence, we can look forward to doing it all again next week.
Starting from the 28 August the Paralympics will be getting going in Paris with a whole host of athletes with a range of disabilities aiming for sporting glory.
However, for a particular group of Paralympians, they may have their chances dashed before even getting to compete due to a little known rule of the games.
It is fairly common place to see Olympians with tattoos of the Olympic rings in various spots on the body and some Paralympians have this same design too.
Often the athletes will get these tattoos in commemoration of their participation in the games.
However, due to rules in set by the Paralympics this can land athletes in trouble and can even lead to being penalised or disqualified form their events.
The main reason for this is because the Olympic rings are not the symbol of the Paralympic games which have their own logo.
And, as per both Olympic and Paralympic rules, body advertising is a big no-no meaning other than official symbols of nations and makes of equipment, athletes cannot endorse other organisations or companies.
Therefore the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will punish athletes with the logo of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) tattoo just because it is not the logo of their games.
Next stop - Paris 🇫🇷
— Paralympics Ireland (@ParalympicsIRE) August 21, 2024
Our Para athletics team is ready. 🔥#TheNextLevel #Paris2024 #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/JQqO2dlruo
This rule applies to many sporting events and lots have fallen foul of this rule before, notably Britain's' Josef Craig, a retired 100m swimmer with Cerebral Palsy.
Craig was punished during the IPC Swimming European Championships eight years ago in the run up to the Rio 2016 Paralympics when, after winning his heat in the S8 100m Freestyle competition, he was disqualified for his tattoo of the Olympic rings on his chest.
This led to the swimmer taking measures at the Rio 2016 games, where he painted a GB flag over his tattoo in order not to be penalised, which paid dividends in the end as Craig went on to win a bronze to add to the gold he won at London 2012 when he was just 15.
After Craig was disqualified from his swim in the European Championships in Portugal a spokesperson said: "Body advertising is not allowed in anyway whatsoever and that includes the Olympic rings.
"The athlete did not wear a cover and was therefore disqualified. All teams are informed of the advertising policy at a technical meeting prior to competition. It wasn’t as if they had not been reminded about the rules."
The Paralympics begins on 28 August and will run until 8 September.
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