John Moody, Fox News' executive vice president, has a problem with the fact that Team USA has introduced a bit of diversity to its roster. The Washington Post reported that the 243 member team of Olympians has two openly gay men, “10 are African American — 4 percent — and another 10 are Asian American. The rest, by and large, are white.”
That's way too gay and black for vice president Moody. From his op-ed (which appears to have been taken down from the Fox News site without explanation, but here's the Archive.org snapshot):
Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to “Darker, Gayer, Different.” If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.
A USOC official was quoted this week expressing pride (what else?) about taking the most diverse U.S. squad ever to the Winter Olympics. That was followed by a, frankly, embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on this year’s U.S. team. No sport that we are aware of awards points – or medals – for skin color or sexual orientation.
For the current USOC, a dream team should look more like the general population. So, while uncomfortable, the question probably needs to be asked: were our Olympians selected because they’re the best at what they do, or because they’re the best publicity for our current obsession with having one each from Column A, B and C?
