President Barack Obama on Friday denied
that he was sending a message with his decision to skip the Winter
Olympics in Sochi.
The administration on Tuesday announced
that tennis legend Billie Jean King, figure skater Brian Boitano and
hockey player Caitlin Cahow would be part of a 10-person delegation
heading to the Sochi Games and that the president and Vice President
Joe Biden would not attend the sporting event. On Thursday, Boitano
publicly announced that he's gay.
(Related: Brian
Boitano comes out gay; Ups number of gay athletes in Olympic
delegation.)
Gay rights activists have urged leaders
to boycott the games in protest of the nation's “gay propaganda”
law, which prohibits public demonstrations of support for the LGBT
community.
At the president's final press
conference of the year, Phil Mattingly of Bloomberg TV asked: “What
was the message you were trying to send with not only your decision
not to attend the Sochi Games, but also with the people you named to
the delegation to represent the United States at those games?”
“Well, first of all, I haven't
attended Olympics in the past, and I suspect that me attending the
Olympics, particularly at a time when we've got all the other stuff
that people have been talking about, is going to be tough, although I
would love to do it,” Obama answered. “I'll be going to a lot of
Olympic Games post-presidency. I think the delegation speaks for
itself. You've got outstanding Americans, outstanding athletes,
people who will represent us extraordinarily well.”
“And the fact that we've got folks
like Billie Jean King or Brian Boitano, who themselves have been
world-class athletes that everybody acknowledges for their excellence
but also for their character, who also happen to be members of the
LGBT community, you should take that for what it's worth – that
when it comes to the Olympics and athletic performance, we don't make
distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation. We judge people on
how they perform, both on the court and off the court – on the
field and off the field. And that's a value that I think is at the
heart of not just America, but American sports.”