--- title: O A R the Band Has Thoughts on Russian Athletes at Olympics description: The band O.A.R. has some hilarious thoughts about the other OAR that shares their name - the Olympic athletes from Russia. canonical: https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-16T20:38:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:59:00.626Z og:title: O.A.R. the Band Has Thoughts on Russian Athletes at Olympics og:description: It's not what you think it is og:url: https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed752599aaa78a6/69892809db2987711c25ecfb/oar-band-russian-athletes-olympics-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Train With OAR And Natasha Bedingfield In Concert - Chula Vista, CA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: O.A.R. the Band Has Thoughts on Russian Athletes at Olympics twitter:description: It's not what you think it is twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ed752599aaa78a6/69892809db2987711c25ecfb/oar-band-russian-athletes-olympics-2018.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # O.A.R. the Band Has a Lot of Feelings About OAR the Olympic Athletes Russian > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Meet Team USA: Red Gerard [Watch (HLS stream): Meet Team USA: Red Gerard](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3YFTC0O0.m3u8) (0:53)  _Published 2018-02-10. Red Gerard is set to potentially become the first U.S. medalist at the 2018 Olympics_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 16, 2018 8:38 PM UTC Red Gerard is set to potentially become the first U.S. medalist at the 2018 Olympics  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 16, 2018 8:38 PM UTC While lots of viewers of the [2018 Winter Olympics](http://time.com/5123348/winter-olympics-2018-schedule/http://time.com/5123348/winter-olympics-2018-schedule/) in [PyeongChang, South Korea](http://time.com/5123599/pyeongchang-weather-winter-olympics-2018/) have wondered [why there is an OAR olympic athlete team](http://time.com/5141549/oar-team-winter-olympics-2018-russia/) at the Winter games, others, like the folks at [_Mashable_](https://mashable.com/2018/02/16/marc-roberge-oar-band-talks-russian-olympics-team/#9ruBHvt2Imqw), were concerned about how the band, O.A.R. were dealing with having to share a name with these Russian athletes. In an interview with _Mashable_, lead singer and guitarist Marc Roberge said that he and the band are taking the name similarity in stride and good humor. “When the games started the phone calls started coming in, the emails, the texts — now to the point where every single morning I have a funny run-in with somebody about it,” he said. “It’s grown into this thing, but it’s hilarious, it’s awesome and I love it.” Roberge also said that the band as a whole are sports fans and that because they also toured Russia in the past, they’re not salty about sharing a name with the Olympic athletes from Russia. “As a group, we’re huge sports fans, we’ve always toured the country and visited a lot of different sports teams,” he said. “The Olympics is a huge event. I have memories my whole life watching with my family and now I do it in the mornings with my own kids…I’m trying to enjoy it, and we’re athletic by proxy now at this point.” ## Transcript [00:01] I [ UNKNOWN ] like family vacations and stuff. When I [00:05] was seven years old, I moved to Breckenridge, [00:07] Colorado, so that's when it really kind of started, you [00:09] know. I don't know if there was ever really like, I wanna [00:13] do this, it just kind of start happening, you know. I'm [00:15] not really a guy that thinks like far ahead by any [00:17] means. And kinda breed day to day. And [00:21] snowboarding just kinda came pretty easy to me. [00:23] [ MUSIC ] [00:26] I mean, I definitely am afraid of risk. I mean, there's [00:30] always that factor of getting hurt, but I try to do [00:32] everything to the point where I'm like, all right, pretty [00:35] sure, at least I'm gonna make it to my body. I'm not [00:35] gonna land on my head, hopefully. But I [00:40] mean, yeah, there is always that risk that you're gonna [00:41] mess up off the lip, you know? And just land [00:44] somewhere where you don't want to land. I just gotta [00:44] hope that it doesn't happen. 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