Well, that’s one way to fall flat at the Olympics. French skier Mathieu Faivre has apologized after being sent home from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, for throwing shade at his teammates.
Faivre, the boyfriend of Team USA Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin, placed seventh in the Men’s Giant Slalom competition. Three of his teammates from France finished ahead of him, and as the BBC reported, Faivre, 26, said he was “disgusted with the result.”
“I’m here to race for myself only,” he added. “I felt I was skiing well in the second run but when I saw where I’d finished it was like a slap in the face.”
Faivre was sent home from the Olympics for “disciplinary reasons” following his comments, director of the French men’s skiing program David Chastan confirmed to AFP on Monday.
Faivre took to social media to apologize. “Skiing is an individual sport that is practiced as a team. However, when we are in the starting gate, only our individual race and our own performance are important. So yes, when it came time to give my feelings on my race, a few 10 minutes after crossing the finish line, only my performance and failure were present,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
He continued, “I did not want to disrespect anyone, I was extremely proud to represent my country and I thank all those who made this possible.”
Shiffrin, 22, opened up exclusively to Us Weekly about her boyfriend. “I think it’s probably the easiest that it could be because I’m gone so much anyway,” the American athlete said of her long-distance relationship with the fellow alpine ski racer. “Like, it doesn’t matter who I’m dating, I’m never gonna really see them. At least with him, we can work out together, we can ski together and kind of find ways to meet up.”
Shiffrin won her second gold medal when she bested her competition in the Giant Slalom event on Wednesday, February 14, at the Winter Olympics.
