During a recent appearance on Fox’s reality-competition series Stars on Mars, contestant Lance Armstrong made some controversial comments against transgender athletes. And Olympic figure skater and member of the LGBTQ community Adam Rippon was not happy about it.
During the competition in which celebrities live in a simulation of Mars and complete intergalactic challenges while voting one another off to Earth, Lance Armstrong made some controversial comments about transgender athletes as he tried to find a “fair” solution in sports.
“Listen, this is real simple: You want to transition, let’s do it. You have your own category. We’re gonna have a whole new division. We’ll celebrate you just like we celebrate everybody else. Let’s go,” Armstrong said on the show. “What’s unfair about that?”
Rippon was not happy with the comments, pointing out that Armstrong – a prolific cheater – is not the person who should be discussing fairness in sports.
“I don’t need to hear what the greatest cheater in American history has to say about what he thinks is an unfair advantage,” Rippon told The Daily Beast last month.
Rippon doubled down on those comments during a more recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“The person talking about this is the most recognized cheater in all of sports. So it’s just not the right time, it’s not the right person,” Rippon continued. “Just focus on what [host] William Shatner has to say and just get your job done.”
Armstrong eventually left the show early while Rippon was the show’s winner.
[The Daily Beast, Entertainment Weekly]
