BEIJING — The Olympics protects its sponsors. In Beijing, you’ll see plenty of Coke and Visa logos, but no Pepsi or American Express anywhere. The IOC goes so far as to put swatches of dark tape over the logos of non-sponsor cars used as Olympic taxis and non-sponsor toilets used as, well, Olympic toilets. You simply do not get between the Olympics and the sweet, steady flow of sponsor cash.
Snowboarder Julia Marino, a silver medalist in slopestyle, learned that lesson the hard way prior to Monday’s big air competition. Marino uses a board with a large Prada logo on it, and that didn’t sit well with the IOC, which required her to cover the logo or risk disqualification.