More on USOC choice of homophobe as US chargé de mission for London 2012

As we wrote HERE, the United States Olympic Committee has chosen former Olymic gymnast Peter Vidmar as the head of the athlete delegation to the next Summer Olympics. From that post: "Vidmar, who won two gold medals and one silver in the 1984 Olympic Games, says that he is in favor of equal treatment for homosexuals and in favor of Prop 8 [a measure designed to impose unequal treatment for homosexuals]."

The Chicago Tribune has now reported on the response of Vidmar and the USOC to the questions raised by this choice.

Peter Vidmar, named last week by the U.S. Olympic Committee as chef de mission for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, said his publicly expressed opposition to same-sex marriage would not affect his support of the team members he will represent, including any who are in same-sex marriages or homosexual.

``I fully respect the rights of everyone to have the relationships they want to have,'' Vidmar said in a telephone interview. ``I respect the rights of all our athletes, regardless of their race, their religion or their sexual orientation. I will cheer and do all I can, passionately, for every athlete on the U.S. Olympic team.''

[...]

Vidmar said his opposition to same-sex marriage comes from exercising his religious freedom as a Mormon.

``The Church wanted to take a stand on the issue, and they invited their members to take a stand,'' he said. ``I chose to be involved.''

The USOC was unaware of Vidmar's publicly expressed views on same-sex marriage before naming him chef de mission.

``I have never tried to hide this,'' Vidmar said. ``It is what it is.''

Having been informed of Vidmar's position on the issue, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun issued a statement reaffirming the choice of Vidmar.

[...]

Among the six ``Fundamental Principles of Olympism'' in the Olympic Charter is, ``Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement.''

Read in full, including the comments of figure skater Johnny Weir, HERE.