U.S. Olympic bobsledder Lauren Gibbs refuses to give a platform to hate.
The 33-year-old athlete won a silver medal with Elana Meyers Taylor in the women’s bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. But this week, she faced an online backlash over a selfie she took with senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump at the Games:
Gibbs snapped a shot of herself with President Donald Trump’s daughter and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who were in South Korea as part of the U.S. delegation for the closing ceremony:
The post sparked accusations that Gibbs’ agreed with the White House’s policies. She also faced criticism for allowing Trump to wear her silver medal:
Gibbs defended the photograph and stated in subsequent tweets that she’d just been conducting herself “in a way that I would want to be treated”:
As for allowing Trump to try on the medal, Gibbs explained:
On Tuesday, Gibbs announced she had deleted the selfie because: “I was tired of reading the hate being thrown back and forth.”
The image’s removal from Twitter sparked another wave of anger, with many Trump supporters accusing Gibbs of caving in to liberal pressure. Gibbs did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, but she again defended her decision online: