Right To Play, a charity championed by many of Canada's top Olympians, is being frozen out of the athletes village at the Vancouver Winter Games for the first time since it began in 1992.

Right To Play will not be an official partner with the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) at the 2010 Games because it has sponsors that conflict with those of VANOC.

The Toronto-based international humanitarian organization has Wayne Gretzky, Silken Laumann, Adam van Koeverden, Simon Whitfield, Jose Calderon of the Raptors and Gregg Zaun of the Blue Jays among its Canadian ambassadors.

Right To Play, formerly Olympic Aid, has set up a booth in the village at the last three Games to inform athletes about their programs, which are delivered in more than 20 countries affected by war, poverty and disease throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Moguls skier Deidra Dionne, a 2002 Olympic bronze medalist and Right To Play ambassador, said she was "saddened" by the news.

"It's unfortunate but not entirely surprising that Right To Play, a not for profit organization designed to spread the Olympic ideals, is a victim of the modern day sport culture that centres around sponsorship dollars and partnerships," said Dionne, in an email response.

Boston Bruins defenceman Andrew Ference, who made a trip to Tanzania for Right To Play, felt any blame lay with VANOC's sponsors.

"It's hard to be frustrated with VANOC when it's their big corporate sponsors doing the shot calling," said Ference. "When you have these huge corporations putting in all this money, some demands are going to be reasonable, some are not reasonable."

But Andrea Shaw, VANOC's VP of marketing, said it was their decision to not allow Right To Play into the athletes village. She said it was based on contractual obligations to give their sponsors exclusivity.

Shaw said VANOC has great admiration for Right To Play, but they could not make any exceptions, even considering the group's charitable status and that they go into the village without bearing any sponsor logos.

"Because Right To Play has competitors with our sponsor family, that would obviously ... (go) right against the grain of our obligations and integrity of our sponsor relationships," Shaw said.

One of the main sponsor conflicts between Right To Play and VANOC in Canada is in the automotive sector. VANOC has a $67 million deal with General Motors Canada, while Right To Play recently got a $480,000 donation from Mitsubishi Motors Canada.

Stu Low, director of communications for GM Canada, said it was clearly explained to Right To Play they couldn't be in the village if they took the Mitsubishi sponsorship.

"As much as they're still a registered charity, they've gone beyond that to a more mature organization and they're acting on behalf of Mitsubishi, because you see it all over the website and things like that. That's where the conflict comes from," said Low.

Low said he believes all the Olympic sponsors would back VANOC's decision, because "they really don't want guerilla marketing going on."

Terry Pursell, VP of global business development and communications for Right To Play, said there were no bad feelings towards VANOC.

"The bottom line is we'll still be in Vancouver," said Pursell. "We're just trying to figure out how to be more creative."

Right To Play came to prominence at the 2006 Turin Olympics when speed skaters Clara Hughes of Canada and Joey Cheek of the U.S. both made significant donations to the charity after winning gold medals. Cheek became aware of Right To Play's existence through the booth in the village.

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"Having Right To Play in the village in the past has been an amazing inspiration and a perfect way to showcase this phenomenal cause to the people who can understand it the most: The athletes," said alpine skier Emily Brydon, who went to Ghana for Right To Play this year.

rstarkman@thestar.ca

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