Openly gay Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff says she will have plenty to say to Russian President Vladimir Putin after her event concludes at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
"After I compete, I'm willing to rip on his ass," she said. "I'm not happy and there's a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy either."
Brockhoff came out publicly in response to the passage of anti-gay laws in Russia this summer, but she's aware that she risks violating Olympic rules if she demonstrates too forcefully before she competes.
"The Australian Olympic Committee has been really supportive and they want me to be safe. They don't recommend me waving a [rainbow] flag around which I won't do.
"The most I'll do is hold up six fingers to represent Principle Six. Possibly I'll do it on camera here or there, and maybe after the heats of my event."
The Principle 6 campaign is designed around one of the principles of the Olympic charter that states: "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." The idea is that the anti-gay laws violate the principle and any athlete citing the IOC's own charter is on safe ground.
It will be interesting to see how much Brockhoff says in Sochi or whether she'd have much of an audience. About her boast regarding Putin's ass, even she conceded on Twitter: " 'willing to' doesnt mean i will haha."
