Trans Athlete Once Said Her Olympic Goal Is to 'Burn a US Flag on the Podium'
A transgender athlete who qualified and was named as an alternate to represent the U.S. at next month's Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, last year publicly said her goal was to win an Olympic medal "so I can burn a US flag on the podium."
Fox News reports in a Facebook post dated March 25, 2020, BMX Freestyle rider Chelsea Wolfe wrote: "My goal is to win the Olympics so I can burn a US flag on the podium. This is what they focus on during a pandemic. Hurting trans children." She had linked to a PinkNews story titled, "Trump administration officially declares it believes trans girls should be treated as 'biological males'".
Wolfe identifies as a transgender woman and told Fox the now-deleted post wasn't intended to show disdain for America but was an attempt to "take a stand against fascism."
"Anyone who thinks that I don't care about the United States is sorely mistaken," Wolfe said. "One of the reasons why I work so hard to represent the United States in international competition is to show the world that this country has morals and values, that it's not all of the bad things that we're known for. I take a stand against fascism because I care about this country... As a citizen who wants to be proud of my home country, I'm sure as h*** not going to let it take hold here."
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Journalist Ian Miles Cheong first reported Wolfe's social media post in his online blog on June 18, writing he believes Wolfe hates her country.
"In Wolfe's case, Wolfe has a physical advantage over everyone else in the competition, and Team USA knows it," Cheong wrote. "Wolfe's acceptance aside, the athlete is a bad fit for Team USA, because Wolfe hates America."
The BMX bike rider also reportedly joked about exploding former President Donald Trump's head.
"I would never say that someone should explode the head of the president. That would be illegal," Wolfe wrote in Facebook comments according to a screenshot posted by Cheong. "But I will say 'with dynamite.' Because that's just a sentence fragment and doesn't actually mean anything. It's not necessarily related to the sentence that came before it."
In order to compete in next month's games, the International Olympic Committee specifies that athletes must declare that their gender identity is female and cannot change that declaration for a minimum of four years.
The athlete must also demonstrate that their total testosterone level is below a specific measurement for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
The IOC policy also states: "The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition."