Friday, April 27, 2018

Several Prominent Winter Olympians Won't Be At White House Reception Today

Gus Kenworthy & Adam Rippon at Opening Ceremonies of 2018 Winter Olympics

The White House will host members of the 2018 U.S. Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams this morning but several of the bigger names from this years' Games won't be in attendance.

From USA Today:

Lindsey Vonn won’t be there. Neither will opening ceremony flag bearer Erin Hamlin, or Adam Rippon, or almost all of his figure skating colleagues, or Chloe Kim, or Gus Kenworthy, or Jessie Diggins, or David Wise.

Some, like Vonn, Rippon and Kenworthy in particular, have made it clear they are skipping the U.S. Olympic Committee’s White House visit because they do not want to stand with the controversial Trump, who, among other things, bragged about sexually assaulting women in a video released during the 2016 presidential campaign, mocked a disabled person during the campaign and called some white supremacists “very fine people” after the deadly Charlottesville rally.

Others have just said they are going to be, um, busy.

Rippon has a full schedule with Dancing with the Stars rehearsals even as he's touring with "Stars On Ice."

But it was a foregone conclusion neither he nor Kenworthy would be attending today.

Rippon told USA Today:

"I have been invited to so many incredible things, to the Human Rights Campaign dinner, the GLAAD Media Awards. I was so honored and so excited to go to those, more so than I would be to go to the White House. I feel like it was more important for me to go to those events because it’s a cause that I really believe in, it’s a message that I believe in. It's important for me to align myself with those people who have the same ideals that I have.”










Posted by Randy Slovacek at 9:26 AM
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