The Olympic's Ugly Side: the IOC vs. Its Own Athletes

There's a very telling, world-famous book titled
The Ugly American. Its lessons still hold, decades later.
This time, though, let's write a new, non-fiction expose',
call it the Ugly IOC, with their infringement on individual
athlete's free, grateful expression of thanks to their sponsors
on social media. But that's not all: no criticism of the IOC
allowed, being banned from the Olympic Games the
ultimate penalty.

The ugliness here stems from two motivations: the IOC's
overweening desire to control the games and greed for evermore
sponsorship dollars for THEMSELVES, thus the "non-compete"
policy of gag orders re: athletes thanking their sponsors on,
say, facebook.

Really, International Olympics Committee, I haven't forgotten
the scandal and corruption swirling around you only a few
short years back....was that ever resolved? Who do you
people think you are? Without the athletes, you're nothing,
could HAVE nothing. Try to acquire a sense of cause and
effect perspective, PLEASE.

Do Olympic athletes have legal rights of free expression a la
those in the USA's First Amendment? Perhaps not, but
they SHOULD.