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I agree with the overall sentiment in Rick Morrissey’s Dec. 3 column about Belgian tennis star Kim Clijsters’ decision to skip the Olympics because she can’t wear her sponsor’s apparel. But it struck me that Morrissey was being too hard on Clijsters.
Morrissey states that the Belgian Olympic Committee requires its athletes to wear Adidas clothing. Could that be because the Belgian Olympic Committee entered into a lucrative sponsorship deal with Adidas?
If so, aren’t they doing the same thing Clijsters did, and aren’t they just as greedy? Evidently, if a country as represented by an Olympic committee auctions itself off, that’s just another revenue stream. If an athlete does the same, he or she is an unpatriotic lout.
