Samsung denies asking athletes to cover iPhones during Olympics

| at Thursday, February 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Sochi Olympics opening ceremony could be a sea of this

Samsung has denied the accusation that it's demanding athletes cover up their iPhones and other non-Samsung logos during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Samsung is heavily involved in the games, giving every athlete a Galaxy Note 3, sending a "Galaxy Team" of 80 athletes around the world on a large-scale marketing campaign, flying student bloggers to Sochi, and releasing a Samsung Wireless Olympic Works app for fans.

But the Swiss Olympic team says the gift of Galaxy Note 3s comes with a catch: that no other logos, iPhone or otherwise, appear on-camera during the opening ceremony. Athletes have even been instructed to physically cover their iPhones during the ceremony, Slashgear reports (the team originally spilled its guts to the German site Bluewin).

But Samsung has informed TechRadar that it has nothing to do with that.

Samsung responds

"Samsung has not been involved in any decisions related to branding on products used by athletes to the Games," a Samsung spokesperson told TechRadar. "All commercial marketing around the Games is overseen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)."

In a previous statement, a Samsung spokesperson explained the reasoning behind giving every athlete a free phone.

"Samsung has partnered with the IOC to provide the official Olympic Games phone to all Sochi 2014 athletes, enabling them to capture, share and experience the Games in an innovative way through the new features of the Galaxy Note 3 and the added functionality of the S Pen," the spokesperson said.

The statement continued, "Athletes can collect photos and digital autographs of other athletes in the Village or use Note 3's drag and drop feature to easily include photos in texts to friends and family back home. The Galaxy Note 3 will create a global community of the athletes and support them to be connected at all times throughout the Games and beyond."

Whatever's really going on here, we'll know for sure when the Sochi 2014 Olympics kick off on February 7.

If all you see is Samsung logos, you'll know who to blame - according to Samsung, at least.