Brian Boitano spoke in defense of Ilia Malinin
1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano spoke out in defense of Ilia Malinin.
During a live broadcast on social media, Malinin responded to a joking request to “prove that you’re straight” by saying that he could no longer be, because then he wouldn’t get the high components.
After that, the skater faced negativity in his address. He apologized “to everyone who was affected” and called his behavior adolescent.
In 2021, Olympic champion Nathan Chen was in a similar situation – he had to apologize for his comment.
“I said the same things when I was their age – and yet I was gay. If we had live social media back then, who knows what I would have said there?
These comments are not reflective of the kind of people these guys are.
When you answer questions, you expect people to ask about your skating, your jumps, your grades. You may not be prepared for other questions and may not be able to put your thoughts in order – and then you may say the wrong thing.
Athletes are focused on the competition and may not always know how best to express themselves.
So in those cases, you have to give yourself a chance to explain yourself when you have time to think. People get mad about something said on social media, but it’s more complicated in sports – you have to understand that,” Boitano said.
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Stop making excuses for Ilia, he knew exactly what he was saying. It’s one thing to say it to a friend as a joke, but to broadcast it to millions of viewers and expect everyone to be ok with it is not on. Nathan Chen was in a similar situation and phrased it differently with the same meaning got his ass kicked. Ilia is immature and he was pissed off because Jason Brown got better scores without doing quadruple axles. If someone askes you that type of question, regardless whether it’s a fan, the media or friend, don’t answer it. In todays society with tik tok, facebook, instagram etc, please stop and think before you speak or type your response.