Fox News executive editor John Moody on Thursday claimed the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) wants to change the Olympic motto to “Darker, Gayer, Different.”
“Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger,’” Moody wrote in an op-ed ahead of the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics on the Fox News’s website. “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.”
Moody slammed a USOC official for praising the diversity of the 2018 U.S. Winter Olympic team, saying the official gave an “embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes” are on this year’s U.S. Olympic squad.
“No sport that we are aware of awards points — or medals — for skin color or sexual orientation,” Moody wrote.
{mosads}Jason Thompson, the USOC’s director of diversity and inclusion, told The Washington Post this week that while the 2018 Winter Olympics team was more diverse than past Winter Olympics teams, “We’re not quite where we want to be.”
“I think full-on inclusion has always been a priority of Team USA,” Thompson told the Post. “I think everybody’s always felt it should represent every American.”
Moody said Thompson’s remarks suggested Olympians were selected for their diversity, writing that “a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition.”
“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?” Moody wrote.
“Sorry,” Moody wrote. “‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ still works better than ‘we win because we’re different.’”
According to the Post, the 2018 U.S. Winter Olympics team is made up of 243 athletes, 10 of which are African-American and 10 of which are Asian-American. The vast majority of the remaining athletes are white.
The 2018 team contains the first African-American long-track speedskater to represent the U.S., as well as its first African-American hockey player.
The team also includes the first openly gay American to qualify for the Winter Olympics, figure skater Adam Rippon.