US: Company co-owned by Olympian files antitrust suit

A company owned by two-time Olympian Nick Symmonds and his coach have filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in Eugene against USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The suit, filed Wednesday in US District Court, alleges that USOC and USATF are illegally restricting sponsor advertising at the upcoming US Olympic Trials, which are scheduled to run July 1-10 at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

Symmonds, a former Springfield resident, and coach Sam Lapray own Run Gum, which sells caffeinated chewing gum. Symmonds said in a news release that Run Gum wants to sponsor athletes at the Trials in exchange for logo exposure on athletes’ competition attire but won’t be allowed to because it’s not an approved sponsor.

“We are simply looking to level the playing field,” Symmonds said. “It is completely illogical and unfair to allow a very small sector of the market to have total control over the advertising space on an athlete’s competition uniform.”

The lawsuit alleges that the USATF and USOC along with “various other unnamed co-conspirators” — including apparel and equipment manufacturers who are sponsoring athletes at the Trials — have agreed to exclude other businesses from sponsoring athletes in return for advertising exposure.

As the suit mentions, USATF has six official sponsors: Nike, BMW, Hershey, Visa, Rosetta Stone and the University of Phoenix.

Full content: Globe Newswire

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