Although the Olympics brings people together, Twitter can still easily separate them.
An ex-Russian figure skater named Irina Rodnina was given the honor of lighting the flame for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi yesterday, but she seems to have a bad behavior past.
While many have been focusing on the games ahead, some Twitter followers were able to search back into Rodnina’s tweets, where they discovered that she once posted a racist picture of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
The horribly-offensive photo shows both POTUS and FLOTUS looking into the camera, but was edited to have a hand holding a banana in front of the lens, giving it racial implications.
According to The Huffington Post, she wrote in response:
“Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups.”
An American ambassador for Russia commented on the photo, saying her “outrageous behaviour… only brings shame to her parliament and country.”
The tweet has been reportedly deleted, but it’s clear the damage is already done. So why exactly did this woman get such a special international honor…?
SOURCE: The Guardian | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
