I was told today that one is not allowed to use the term Olympic distance for the ehh… the Olympic distance. And that this was made clear in the mid 90’s by the Olympicwhatdoyoucallthem, because they are the owners of the term “olympic”. In Norway one uses the term “Classic distance” in official descriptions as a result of this. Do anyone know if this “no to the term olympic distance” is true?
I’m still trying to figure out what the Lord of the Rings has to do with the Olympics.
The IOC was called “The Lord of the Rings” in some book 10 years ago or so because they are in fact the lords of the olympic rings- Or something like that
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It’s true, that’s why it’s usually called the ‘International distance’. Bizarre eh ?
Great now I wonder if the IOC will let me get that olympic sized beer at the pub?
Before it was called Olympic Distance it was called International Distance.
Olympic sounds better.
I believe that the USOC and the IOC hold the trademark rights to the term “Olympic” and in fact such rights are protected via the different national charters. In order to hold trademark rights, one needs to protect them or else they are deemed to have abonded them. So, if a race is markets as the Olympic Triathlon, the USOC could in fact stop it or license the name (probably would require some sanctioning procedure though). They did do such a thing when they stopped the “Gay Olympics” (note: they could also have sanctioned and licensed the name as they do for Special Olympics- but for political reasons chose to prevent it).
But, here’s the funny thing, one could argue that while the USOC could prevent “The Splash and Dash Olympic Triathlon”, the USOC/IOC would have a harder time preventing “The Slash and Dash Olympic-distance Triathlon” or “Splash and Dash Triathlon, an Olympic-distance event”. As the later two are not marketing the race as an Olympic triathlon, but merely identifying the distance as being equal to the official Olympic distance. I’m not sure this would work, but it maybe a possible argument. While not true infringement in my book, the USOC may still claim it creates a likelihood of confusion or dilutes their rights and may be successful. Note - the WTC goes through very similar efforts, thus only officially sanctioned races may call themselves Ironman events. However, some still refer to their race as an “Iron Distance” event.
Alan
Francois:
That’s tight about Ironman/WTC. But, by referencing the official event, it may be possible to use Olympic in descring a race distance, but not as a race name/brand. Just as one swims in Olympic-sized pools, or lifts with Olympic-sized bars.
Alan
Wow… this was an issue years ago… the official name is International Distance (typically shortened as ID).
FWIW Joe Moya
I could hide behind the fact that my ignorance is a result of me not being interested in triathlon years ago 
. Most use Olympic distance or something like that though.
heck,… I hide behind my ignorance all the time… that’s because it is such a big subject to hide behind
It’s funny you should say that Oly is the most commonly used discription of ID tri’s… just prior to it’s introduction into the Olymipics, the posts more typically referred to them as ID’s. Terminology usage is a never ending process for sure… just like shoe cleats replaced cages. This sport certainly is constantly evolving.
FWIW Joe Moya
Same can go for an Olympic distance pool (50m). If a pool advertises ‘We have an Olympic distance pool’, can they get sued? I would hope not…
But it seems as though ‘Olympic’ tris are the standard distance, whereas International tris are very variable in distance.
On a related note, all the stupidity(and it is just that) with trademarks, standard marks, copyrights, and intellectual property will have it so that pretty soon you won’t be able to talk without paying royalties or risking a lawsuit(I humbly refer you to mikerowesoft.com, run by a software developer named, of all things, Mike Rowe). I saw today that Rodale Press has registered “Live Your Whole Life” as their trademark. I wonder if the Beastie Boys will sue them for stealing the lyrics to one of their songs.
It’s absolutely brilliant that companies intentionally brand themselves in such a way that they achieve ubiquity within the marketplace, then they proceed to sue everybody who uses that ubiquitous name, regardless of whether any money will be made by virtue of the usage, and one cannot reasonably argue that the brand is hurt by the association As, for example, with an Olympic distance race, where one does not expect more people to sign up simply because it is called Olympic, nor do people think less of the Olympic games simply because there are triathlons that say they are of the Olympic distance.
Hell if I know, I just got out of prison for calling a run/bike/run event a “biathlon”.
I think Jeff has hit the nail on the head - in this case, length does matter!
If you look at the USA Tri sanctioning guidelines, there are four general length classifications: Sprint, International, Long, and Ultra. An International has a swim between 1.1 and 2 km, a bike between 25.1 and 50 km, and a run between 5.1 and 10 km. An Olympic course is defined as what IOC uses: a 1.5 km swim, a 40 km bike, and a 10 km run.
So, you can call it an Olympic if it meets those 3 lengths; if one of the three legs is shorter or longer, it should be called an International.