Overreacting much?
Scotty Lago, Olympic bronze medal winning half-pipe snowboarder of Team USA, volunteered to leave the Olympics on Friday after racy pictures of him were leaked online.
Lago, who was awarded his bronze medal Thursday night, was at a party, wearing a Team USA T-shirt when somebody snapped a photo of a woman kneeling below the Olympian’s waist to kiss the medal. A second picture shows Lago sticking the medal in the woman’s mouth as teammate Greg Bretz looks on.
Both images went viral after appearing on TMZ Friday afternoon.
The pics sparked a lively discussion among sports fans online, and by Friday evening, Lago had apologized to officials at the US Olympic Committee and the US Ski and Snowboard Association and decided to go home. Both organizations have been tough on athletes after freestyle skier Jeret “Speedy” Peterson got into an alcohol-fueled incident following his competition in 2006.
“Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct, and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable,” Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Saturday. “Scotty realizes his conduct was inappropriate. He has formally apologized and also made a decision to leave Vancouver today.”
Lago was a member of a group of snowboarders called The Frends.