Sports Stars Against Homophobia; Skating Medalist Abandons Sochi Bid

Sports Stars Speak Out Against Homophobia Ahead of Russian Olympics

Former professional basketball player Jason Collins and tennis great Martina Navratilova on Tuesday urged world sports bodies like the International Olympic Committee and FIFA to take gay rights into consideration when awarding major sporting events.

The two openly gay athletes spoke at a special United Nations event celebrating International Human Rights Day.

They focused in part on the upcoming Winter Olympics in Russia, which passed a law this summer banning homosexual "propaganda." The law has drawn international condemnation and sparked calls for a boycott, though no nations have threatened to pull their athletes.

Navratilova, who lost lucrative endorsements when she came out in 1981, said she doesn't support boycotts of any kind. But she said the IOC is "putting its head in the sand" and criticized FIFA, the world soccer body, for awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

"Nobody's talking about Qatar and the World Cup. You can get a jail term there," she said of consensual gay sex in the Persian Gulf nation. In six other countries, including Saudi Arabia, simply being gay is punishable by death, she said.

"Gays and lesbians seem to be the last group it's seen as OK to pick on," she said.

The two athletes also joked about how times have changed for gay rights in the U.S.

"When Collins came out this year, he got a phone call from President Obama congratulating him," Navratilova said. "Well, in 1981, Reagan was president. I didn't get that phone call."

"It's funny, right before President Obama, it was Oprah Winfrey," Collins added. "Like a surreal experience."

Collins almost shyly thanked Navratilova for being so outspoken.

"I'm sitting next to one of my idols," he said.

North America's major pro sports leagues are still awaiting an openly gay athlete. Collins, 35, was prepared to become the first when he came out after the NBA regular season had ended. The aging reserve player and free agent has not been signed by another team, though he says he stays in shape and hopes to return to the NBA.

Collins said the league is doing a "great job changing the culture of sport" in regard to gay players.

In a recorded message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also praised straight athletes who speak out against homophobia. "They understand an abuse against any of us is an affront to all," he said.

In a related event Tuesday, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called the Russian law "as outrageous as it is dangerous."

Power, who was meeting with dozens of gay activists from around the world, said 78 countries still have laws that criminalize consensual sex between adults.

"To deny gays and lesbians the right to live freely ... is in fact barbarian," Power said.

This year was the first time the UN held a ministerial meeting on LGBT issues, with Secretary of State John Kerry attending. "That's progress," Power said.

Russian journalist and gay rightsactivist Masha Gessen then read part of the Russian law on gay "propaganda" and said: "It actually enshrines second-class citizenship and makes it a crime to talk about equality."

Zambian activist Juliet Mphande listened to Gessen's comments and said, "I imagine Russia to be an African country right now." She said at least six people from her country's gay community had been arrested this year.

Olympic Figure Skating Gold Medalist Abandons Sochi Bid

Injury has forced reigning Olympic men’s figure skating gold medalist, American Evan Lysacek, to abandon his attempt to mount a comeback at February’s Sochi Games, he said Tuesday.

Lysacek, 28, stunned the skating world when he beat Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko to gold in Vancouver in 2010, and has not competed since.

He had planned to return in September at the Skate America Grand Prix event, but a hip injury prevented him from doing so, and US Figure Skating said Tuesday that treatment would take "several" more months.

"Words cannot describe how disappointed I am to not be able to compete in Sochi," Lysacek said in comments carried by the US Figure Skating website. "The proudest moments of my life have been representing the United States in the last two Winter Olympics."

"I have suffered numerous injuries over the course of my skating career, and they are some of the hardest things an athlete has to overcome. While none of my past injuries have sidelined me quite like this one, I remain determined to regain my health and skate again."

Illinois native Lysacek, who also has a world championship and two US titles to his name, sparked controversy with his 2010 Olympic win because he did not perform a quadruple jump, figure skating’s toughest element, unlike the second-place Plushenko.

After Vancouver, Lysacek took a season’s sabbatical but planned to return to competition in fall 2011, a plan that fell apart over an apparent financial dispute between him and US Figure Skating.

Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.

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