Lindsey Vonn sends direct message to her pro-Trump critics and their 'savage abuse'
Lindsey Vonn’s Winter Olympics experience certainly can’t be going the way she wanted.
Despite her celebrity status and her being favored in several races, Vonn has thus far earned only a lone bronze medal.
It would be a rather anticlimactic ending to what will most likely be her final Winter Olympics.
The race results would be one thing, but Vonn also has been subject to torrid criticisms during her time in Pyeongchang.
She hasn’t even been able to escape criticism from her own father.
“It’s great skiing, but it reminds me of something that [former U.S. Alpine skier] Buddy Werner used to say,” Vonn’s father, Alan Kildow, told USA Today, after her bronze medal finish in the downhill race Wednesday. “He said there’s two places in the race, first and last, and I only want one of them.”
Kildow noted several things Vonn could’ve done better, but he still called it a “great race” for her.
Unfortunately for Vonn, her father’s criticisms are just the tip of the iceberg.
She has been berated ever since she made derogatory comments about President Donald Trump.
“Well, I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,” Vonn said in a December interview segment with CNN.
“I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony,” she said. “I want to represent our country well. I don’t think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”
The backlash to her comments was swift, fierce and unrelenting.
The criticism hasn’t stopped during the Olympics.
Now Vonn is firing back.
“They should walk in my shoes,” she said when asked about her detractors during an interview with the Daily Mail.
“But I will not be beaten. I stand strong. I am proof of what I represent. I am very proud to hold the American flag, and all Americans deserve to hold the flag and be proud of their country no matter what their beliefs,” Vonn added.
The 33-year-old Vonn also addressed what she described as the “savage abuse” she has received online.
“I agree it has been ‘savage abuse,'” Vonn said. She said it’s been difficult for her to “understand the thought behind the savage abuse I have taken on the internet.”
“In real life, most people wouldn’t say that to me to my face. My family loves me, so I am fine with that,” Vonn said.
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