Lebanese Olympic Committee Investigating Topless Skier

Posted by | February 12, 2014 16:25 | Filed under: Politics Top Stories


Because of topless images of Olympic skier Jackie Chamoun that have come to light, she is being investigated by the Olympic Committee of her native Lebanon.

Chamoun, 22, is one of just two Lebanese Olympians in Sochi, set to compete in the slalom and giant slalom skiing events next week. She also skied in the 2010 Vancouver Games, placing 54th in the slalom. Three years ago, Chamoun and a fellow female Lebanese skier posed for a calendar that has annually featured both male and female skiers in various states of undress. In 2012, American Julie Mancuso (who won a bronze medal in the super combined on Monday) graced the cover of the calendar which is shot by six-time Mexican Olympic skier Hubertus von Hohenlohe, 55, who is again participating in Sochi (who also happens to be a pop singer and the son of a prince).

The photos of Chamoun appear in the 2014 calendar and while risqué, do not show her naked. The calendar has been out since late last year, but in recent days, far more explicit images and video have surfaced online that Chamoun says are from behind-the-scenes material that she hadn’t seen and wasn’t meant to be public.

Lebanese media outlets seized on the photos, several declaring the story a “scandal.” Lebanon’s caretaker sports minister Faisal Karami reportedly called the Lebanese Olympic Committee president and asked him to launch “the necessary inquiries…as soon as possible in order to the take the required steps to [avoid] harming Lebanon’s reputation and international participation,” according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Responding to the furor, Chamoun apologized on her Facebook page today and called the situation “sad.” “I want to apologize to all of you, I know that Lebanon is a conservative country and this is not the image that reflects our culture,” Chamoun wrote. “I fully understand if you want to criticize this.”

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By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.