{"id":3606,"date":"2018-02-12T03:18:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T11:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=3606"},"modified":"2018-02-12T03:18:59","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T11:18:59","slug":"strange-olympic-pairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2018\/02\/12\/strange-olympic-pairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange Olympic Pairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Unless it\u2019s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics<\/strong>, since 1894, has been \u2018
\nFaster, Higher, Stronger\u2019.  It appears the US Olympic Committee <\/strong>would like
\nto change that to \u2018Darker, Gayer, Different\u2019.  If your goal is to win medals, that won\u2019t work<\/em>.”<\/em><\/span>  
\n<\/em>\u2013 FOX<\/em> News <\/em>Vice President John Moody <\/strong>criticizes the diversity of the US Olympic Team<\/em>. 
\nIn case anyone is keeping track, there are 243 athletes on the US Olympic Team<\/em>. 
\nTwo of them are (openly) gay.  That\u2019s not even one in ten!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, who\u2019s watching the Olympics<\/em><\/strong>?  Eh, I know you were watching.  You at least watched the Opening Ceremonies<\/em>, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Far be it from me to turn my back on a hot shirtless man \u2013 although, you know, occasionally these things do happen.  Anyway, I did find the presence of the now-requisite shirtless flag bearer from Tonga somewhat odd for a Winter Olympics <\/em>\u2013 although it did remind me that I need to get an oil change!  Turns out, Pita Taufatofua<\/strong>, who was a taekwondo competitor in the Rio Olympics<\/em>, is suddenly a cross country skier.  He picked up the sport two years ago \u2013 when he first saw snow!  Well, how many skiers do they have in Tonga?<\/p>\n

My eyes were peeled for our two openly gay Olympians <\/em>\u2013 and I stress \u201copenly\u201d because\u2026well, what happens in the Olympic Village<\/em>, stays in the Olympic Village<\/em>.  Adam Rippon <\/strong>and Gus Kenworthy <\/strong>kissed for the cameras and ended up all over the internet.  Gus posted the photos, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re here.  We\u2019re queer.  Get used to it.\u201d  How retro.  Turns out getting ready for your close-up ain\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be.  Rippon said, \u201cI\u2019ve been bleaching my teeth for the past few days, and now the wind that I create from just talking makes them hurt.  Like, I think this is a sign that I\u2019m officially ready for my Olympic debut.\u201d  I believe Peggy Fleming <\/strong>had the same problem.<\/p>\n

Although Mike Pence <\/strong>allegedly got a selfie with Pita (but it does look like it could be a fake), he hasn\u2019t yet gotten one with Adam Rippon.  You\u2019ll recall that Adam previously said that he wasn\u2019t a fan of the VP due to his association with gay conversion therapy.  Shockingly enough, Pence addressed the situation in a Tweet<\/em>. \u201c@Adaripp I want you to know we are FOR YOU.  Don\u2019t let fake news distract you.  I am proud of you and ALL OF OUR GREAT athletes and my only hope for you and all of #TeamUSA is to bring home the gold.  Go get \u2018em!\u201d <\/p>\n

Making the situation murkier, Rippon\u2019s mom Kelly <\/strong>spoke out about the alleged war of words.  \u201cI believe that you can say it many different ways.  I don\u2019t think he ever said, \u2018I refuse to do that\u2019, because that suggests a tone of intolerance and inflexibility.  He conveyed to whomever, I don\u2019t know the individuals, that any kind of communication would have to be done after the competition is over.\u201d  I can corroborate what Mrs. Rippon says.  Here is what Adam said to a reporter last month: \u201cIf I had the chance to meet him afterwards, after I\u2019m finished competing, there might be a possibility to have an open conversation.\u201d  So there you have it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Unless it\u2019s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been \u2018 Faster, Higher, Stronger\u2019.  It appears the US Olympic Committee would like to change that to \u2018Darker, Gayer, Different\u2019.  If your goal is to win medals, that won\u2019t work.”   \u2013 FOX News Vice President John Moody criticizes the diversity of the US Olympic Team.  In case anyone is keeping track, there are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3615,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}