American stars in protest at 'unjust' ban on their sponsors

The IOC's 'Rule 40' is pricing athletes out of the sport, Team USA members claim

Sanya Richards- Ross says the ban will hurt many in Team USA (Getty Images)

American track and field athletes have launched an extraordinary protest against strict corporate sponsorship rules which forbid competitors from promoting any non-official Olympic brands during the Games.

Dozens of track athletes, including some of Team USA's rising stars, have taken to Twitter to demand a change to "Rule 40" – which bans athletes from appearing for personal sponsors. Some even posted images of their mouths duct-taped with the words Rule 40 written on across them.

The International Olympic Committee says the ban is needed to protect official brands from ambush marketing. Over the past four years "top tier" sponsors, such as Adidas, McDonald's and BMW, have paid more than £609m towards the Games.

But athletes say they are missing out on a vital two weeks where their global exposure is enormous. Although some of Team USA's biggest stars make handsome profits from sponsorship deals in the run up to the Games, many members struggle to find enough cash to compete. US track athletes receive little government funding and are reliant on sponsors or their own cash.

Sanya Richards-Ross, a gold medal winner in Athens and Beijing, is fortunate. She has deals with BMW – an official Olympic sponsor – and clothing giant Nike. But she fears that many of her colleagues are being priced out of athletics by the rules. "I've been very fortunate to do very well around the Olympics, but so many of my peers struggle in this sport," she said yesterday, "And I just think it's unjust.

"People see the Olympics, they see the two weeks when athletes are at their best. It's the most glorious time in their lives, but they don't see the three or four years leading up to the Olympic Games when a lot of my peers are struggling to stay in the sport. The majority of track and field athletes don't have sponsors and don't have support to stay in the sport. A lot have second and third jobs to do this."

Only 2 per cent of Team USA's athletes, she said, had deals with official Olympic sponsors. When US flag-bearer and fencing gold medallist Mariel Zagunis posted a recent tweet thanking official sponsor Procter and Gamble for flying her mother to London for the opening ceremony, she was not censured. But a number of athletes have been told to take photos down from Facebook accounts promoting non-official brands.

The IOC said it will not back down over Rule 40. "A huge number of the 10,500 athletes who are here would understand why we are doing this," said IOC spokesman Mark Jones. "For one month, we ask them not to endorse products not related to the Olympics that don't actually give money back to the movement."

But other athletes have supported the Team USA protests. Ed Moses, Olympic hurdles champion in 1976 and 1984, said his earning power was much higher in his heyday than that of any American track and field athlete today. "Track and field has fallen behind a lot of the professional sports," he said.