EUGENE, ORE. — After nine years of slippery, slinky competition, the Ferret Olympics is being forced to change its name - the U.S. Olympic Committee has threatened to sue.
An estimated 75 ferrets competed for medals at the Ferret Agility Trials on Sunday in events including the tube run and the paper bag escape. Only "they are not Olympians anymore," organizer Melanee Ellis said with a laugh.
Ellis started the Ferret Olympics in 1996, the year of the Atlanta games, as a fundraiser for a local ferret shelter.
The Ferret Olympics didn't attract much attention until the local newspaper reported on it in 2004, Ellis said.
Within two weeks of the story, she received phone calls from the BBC in London, "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and, eventually, the U.S. Olympic Committee.
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