Olympic medalists slam US Olympic and Paralympic committee's suggestion of redesigning American flag logo
Gary Hall Sr. and Gary Hall Jr. weigh in on the possible redesign on 'Hannity'
American Olympic swimming medalists Gary Hall Sr. and Gary Hall Jr. sounded off on "Hannity" Tuesday following report of a proposal to potentially redesign the U.S. Olympic Committee's U.S. flag logo.
Hall Sr. won Silver medals in the 1968 Mexico City, 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympiads, while his son won Golds in the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens games.
Hall Jr. declared that "Old Glory doesn't need rebranding," and added that the USOC could have and should have better allocated its resources rather than, potentially, to an agency or consultant if any were involved in the logo redesign plans.
"What irritates me out of this whole thing is that there is some marketing or branding firm out there that has already been paid a lot of money for these drafts even and these resources, couldn't they be better applied by supporting our athletes or giving it to an anti-doping agency to catch cheaters?" he asked.
"The greatest honor of my life was in Montreal in 1976 when I was selected to carry the American flag for the U.S. Olympic team leading into Montreal Stadium," Hall Sr. said. "And the American flag is iconic. It doesn't just represent the greatest country in the world. It represents and symbolizes millions of Americans who have worked hard, who have sacrificed, some of them, with their own lives."
The Halls also mentioned another family hero, Hall Jr.'s cousin – a Navy SEAL who was killed in action in Iraq in 2016.
"No one has the right to change that other than U.S. Congress, and to me, it's disrespectful to even consider changing the American flag," Hall Sr. continued.
In response to host Sean Hannity's coverage of the story on Monday, USOC spokeswoman Kate Hartman said the imagery featured on "Hannity" "was one of many concepts being brainstormed as part of a branding logo update for the USOPC."
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"We want to be clear that we love our country and respect the American flag. We do not have any intention, not to mention the authority, to change our country’s flag that flies above the podium when a member of Team USA achieves Olympic or Paralympic greatness," Hartman concluded.
In addition, Hannity said the rebranding is a "waste of time" and pointed to sports like the NHL where fans took over national anthem duties, as an example of support for keeping the logo as-is.
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