The Olympic Athletes From Russia Are Making People Care About O.A.R. Again

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After Russia narrowly avoided getting banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics in the wake of a doping scandal straight out of Rocky IV, the International Olympic Committee decided to make it up to the rest of the world when they barred the country’s athletes from competing under their flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The IOC banned a number of competitors connected to the doping program from participating n Pyeongchang (who will still have a chance to show off their skills at the upcoming Fake Winter Olympics), while everyone who was allowed to travel to South Korea was forced to identify as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia.”

The IOC assigns every Olympic team a unique three-letter code, and they decided to shorten the clunky moniker to “OAR,” an abbreviation which basically everyone who went to high school in the 2000s associates with a band that served as the soundtrack to a countless number of beer pong games played in someone’s basement.

Based on the target demographic of this website, I assume that virtually everyone reading this is intimately familiar with O.A.R., but if you’re not, the best way to describe them is as the Marshmallow Mateys to the Dave Matthews Band’s Lucky Charms  (“Hey Girl”  is basically the off-brand version of “Crash Into Me”). They might have faded into the background compared to some of their contemporaries, but they’re apparently experiencing a resurgence thanks to Russia’s love affair with illegal supplements.

The Washington Post caught up with lead singer Marc Roberge, who revealed O.A.R. has seen close to a 50% increase in Spotify streams since the start of the games— a surge he never saw coming:

“We kind of thought it was a great coincidence. We joked about it internally. We didn’t know anybody cared… You can go on TV as much as you want and you don’t traditionally see an increase … never anything like this. We’re all pleasantly confused.”

As far as I’m concerned, if the IOC had really wanted to punish the Russians, they should have required every single figure skater from the country to perform to their O.A.R. song of choice. If wanting to watch someone land a triple lutz while “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker” is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Connor Toole avatar and headshot for BroBible
Connor Toole is the Deputy Editor at BroBible. He is a New England native who went to Boston College and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Frequently described as "freakishly tall," he once used his 6'10" frame to sneak in the NBA Draft and convince people he was a member of the Utah Jazz.