Italian Olympic champion Sofia Goggia took to social media to apologise for homophobic and anti-trans comments she made when speaking to a national newspaper came to light.
Goggia became the first Italian woman to win gold at the Winter Olympics when she triumphed in the women’s Alpine downhill skiing event at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. She then added World Cup downhill titles to her collection in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
However, the 29-year-old has been criticised after her derogatory comments surfaced during a standard Q&A session with Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. When asked if she considered herself a feminist, Goggia said: “I believe that women must fight for their rights, including equal pay.
“But women are women; men, men. I don't like it when they say: woman with balls. Why do you have to judge me by what I don't have, what I'm not?”
When questioned on whether there was a high level of homosexuality within skiing, Goggia appeared to suggest that homosexual men wouldn’t be brave enough to go down the harrowing Streif course in the Austrian Alps. She said: “Among the women, some are.
“Among men I would say no. They have to throw themselves off Kitz's Streif.”
Once Corriere Della Sera asked Goggia about the topic of transgender athletes, to which the Olympic champion said: “In terms of sport a man who turns into a woman has physical characteristics, even at the hormonal level, which allow him to push harder. I don't think it's right then.”
There was uproar after her interview went public, and Goggia frantically jumped on Twitter to post an apology. She claimed her comments were received in a different way to how she meant them.
“A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest,” she wrote on social media. “I am sorry and I apologise to all the people who felt offended by the sentence that came out in the Corriere interview which, certainly, when I said it, did not want to be of a discriminatory nature.”
Ivan Scalfarotto, Deputy Minister at the Italian Ministry of Interior, is a vocal LGBT rights activist. He criticised the way in which Goggia approached the subject, and urged her to be more sensitive in the future going forwards.
“I read with dismay that according to Sofia Goggia a gay athlete would not be able to do a downhill,” Scalfarotto wrote. “Before saying such things, kind Sofia, you should stop and think twice: speed is an advantage in the race but with words it can become a big problem.”
