Oh, man.. This made my week.
For all our talk about the upcoming Winter Olympics, another event that's largely flown under the radar is the World Athletic Championships, taking place in Moscow as we speak.
American Nick Symmonds pulled off a silver-medal run in the men's 800-meter race. After the race he was interviewed by RIA-Novosti's sports subsidiary R-Sport, when he said the following:
As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them... Whether you're gay, straight, black, white, we all deserve the same rights. If there's anything I can do to champion the cause and further it, I will, shy of getting arrested.
Fun fact: the interview is published on RIA Novosti's English-language portal, but appears in
none of its Russian-language
pages, though you can see Symmonds
here finishing behind Mohammad Aman, whose interview is online in Russian. Video of the race is
here.
Best part is, this was spontaneous. Symmonds has been an outspoken advocate in the past, but he promised to stay silent during his stay in Moscow out of respect for being "a guest in a host nation." The Russian press is apparently responding in kind. Online news outlet Lenta discussed his pre-competition advocacy but has also not followed up with his statements in Moscow.
A heartfelt thank you, Nick... And congratulations on the medal!