Why not encourage bullying of fat kids?
Winter Olympics athlete is condemned for online rant about shaming obese pupils
A SCOTS Olympic medal hopeful apologised yesterday after suggesting fat children should be bullied to encourage them to lose weight.
Team GB cross-country skier Andrew Young sparked anger and was condemned by team bosses after it was revealed he wrote a blog post labelling overweight youngsters ‘porkers’.
The 25-year-old – who is due to compete tomorrow in the finals of the men’s individual sprint in Pyeongchang – also condemned a lack of fitness among British school children.
The comments, which have been deleted, have been branded ‘not in line with the values of the British Olympic Association’ by Team GB bosses.
In the post – written on his blogspot site – Young, from Huntly, Aberdeenshire, wrote: ‘Why not encourage bullying of fat kids?
‘Enough saying, “there, there, your [sic] just big boned”, tell them outright they are a porker and need to lose weight.
‘If the attitude towards fat people changed, then we wouldn’t have so many. If people learn from a young age that it is not acceptable to be fat, then they aren’t going to get fat.’
Young – who now lives and trains in Norway – also described how he was ‘by far the fittest’ at his school – and hit out at teachers for not pushing him hard enough.
The athlete used the blog, written six years ago, to call for PE to be overhauled and blamed a poor standard of teaching in the subject for Britain’s poor performance in winter sports on the world stage.
He posted: ‘I have seen this in two junior cross-country skiers from Great Britain. By far the fittest at school, by far the strongest, by far the quickest. But nowhere near the standard to compete internationally.
‘They basically got told they were awesome, went abroad to race and got thrashed.’
He added: ‘For PE to work in schools, the content of what is taught, the class size and the attitude of students towards PE must change. I do not hold the teachers accountable for what happened at my school.
‘Most of the time they were as good as they could possibly be under the conditions and the curriculum.
‘They supported me when I was training seriously and combining school and for that I thank them.’
He went on: ‘I would be in favour of removing PE from schools but encouraging out-of-school or after-school sports.’
He signed off the post by writing: ‘I am just putting this out there. I don’t truly believe this.
‘I’m just putting it out there, of course I have nothing against fat people. That’s who they are.’
Young’s comments were criticised yesterday by Team GB bosses. Scott Field, director of communications, said: ‘We do not condone the comments made by Andrew Young and we have made our own thoughts on this matter clear to his national government body, British Ski and Snowboard.
‘They, in turn, have taken this matter up with the athlete, and I am sure you will appreciate the expedience in which they have taken this matter on board.
‘This matter will be handled by them internally but we can confirm we have outlined our belief such comments are not in line with values of the British Olympic Association.’
British Ski and Snowboard said: ‘We were made aware of the blog in question. The matter has been handled internally.
‘Andrew was reminded of his responsibilities to reflect the values of British Ski and Snowboard and has taken down the blog.’
Young said: ‘I’m sorry for my old blog posts.
‘I acknowledge these historic views are inappropriate and nor do I condone bullying.’
Why not encourage bullying of fat kids? Enough saying, “there, there, your [sic] just big boned”, tell them outright they are a porker and need to lose weight. If the attitude towards fat people changed then we wouldn’t have so many. If people learn from a young age that it is not acceptable to be fat, then they aren’t going to get fat Andrew Young’s blog post