--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:50:44.316Z 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  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 16, 2018 8:38 PM UTC  CHULA VISTA, CA - MAY 14: (L-R) Musicians Benj Gershman, Jon Lampley, Jerry DePizzo, and Marc Roberge of O.A.R. perform on stage at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre on May 14, 2017 in Chula Vista, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images) CHULA VISTA, CA - MAY 14: (L-R) Musicians Benj Gershman, Jon Lampley, Jerry DePizzo, and Marc Roberge of O.A.R. perform on stage at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre on May 14, 2017 in Chula Vista, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)Daniel Knighton—Getty Images  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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/"},"headline":"O.A.R. the Band Has a Lot of Feelings About OAR the Olympic Athletes Russian","datePublished":"2018-02-16T20:38:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:44.316Z","description":"It's not what you think it is","url":"https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"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=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"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=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Train With OAR And Natasha Bedingfield In Concert - Chula Vista, CA","caption":"Train With OAR And Natasha Bedingfield In Concert - Chula Vista, CA","creditText":"Daniel Knighton—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5163270/oar-the-band-olympic-russian-athletes-olympics-2018/","name":"O.A.R. the Band Has a Lot of Feelings About OAR the Olympic Athletes Russian"}}]}] ```