Clijsters out of Olympics

Yahoo! is running a story citing a statement on Clijsters' Web site that 
because the Belgian Olympic Committee won't budge on its requirement that 
all athletes wear clothing made by its sponsor, Adidas, she won't be 
playing. Clijsters, as we know, has a contract with Fila.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think Clijsters is 
right to honor her contractual commitments (I don't really think she has 
much choice); I *also* thinik the fact that xOCs are signing such 
immovable sponsorship deals indicates what utter crap the claim is that 
the Olympics represent some kind of pure, uncontaminated, amateur sporting 
ideal. In practical terms, it's also just stupid: surely the BOC knows 
there are sports in which the athletes are often signed to exclusive 
contracts (though for the vast majority of athletes who represent Belgium 
in the Olympics I'm sure it's not an issue).

Still, you'd think Clijsters could have negotiated an exemption for the 
Olympics. Surely it's in all her sponsors' best interests for her to play, 
no matter what she's wearing.

All quite bizarre. Butis likely to make Navratilova/Raymond even more of a 
favorite. 

wg