Some U.S. Olympic Athletes Really Hate This Viral Gay Luging Video
It's all fun and games, until some LGBT activists say your games are kinda gay.
The Sochi Winter Olympics are already fraught with gay politics, considering Russia's homophobic culture and legal system. But some American athletes in Sochi are annoyed by a different gay "problem": a viral video by a pro-equality Canadian group that has some fun with their sport.
That sport is men's doubles luging, in which two gents in skin-tight suits pile onto each other in a tiny ice craft to run the chute as fast as they can. And the video above, by the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion, exploits that for maximum yuks, with an 80s soundtrack provided by Human League. "The Games have always been a little gay," the video tagline reads. "Let's fight to keep it that way."
"They're making fun of our sport for their cause and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to me," Christian Niccum, an American Olympian, said after completing two training runs at the Sanki Sliding Center. "If I were to go hug my dad and someone took a picture and showed it in really slow motion, they could use it in a video like that and that's just ridiculous. It's my dad. Can't we show affection to each other without it being some sort of sexual contact? This is sports. It's the same thing. Why does it have to be like that?"
... The problem, according to another American, Matthew Mortensen, is that making fun of doubles luge has become hackneyed. "For some reason," he said, "whether it's Jimmy Kimmel or Conan O'Brien or anyone, doubles luge is always the target. It's never about football players taking a snap or whatever. We've heard all this stuff before."
That seems a little unfair. Plenty of jokes go around about football snaps and tight ends and the like, and no wrestler gets through a career without hearing some silly remarks about the riding positions and his leotard singlet.
In any case, not every luger is irked by the video's portrayal. As U.S. Olympian Preston Griffall told the Times: "We're two dudes, laying on top of each other in spandex. Of course people are going to make fun of it."