French Alpine skier Mathieu Faivre, the boyfriend of Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin, has been sent home from the Games after saying he did not care about medals won by his team-mates and was only concerned with his own success.
The French Alpine team confirmed on Monday that Faivre had been kicked out of the Games for the comments he made to reporters after finishing seventh in the men’s giant slalom on Sunday.
Alexis Pinturault won bronze behind Austrian Marcel Hirscher in the race and two other Frenchmen, Thomas Fanara and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, finished fifth and sixth.
French Alpine skier Mathieu Faivre has been sent home from the Winter Olympics for a lack of team spirit
The 26-year-old has been dating American gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin since this past summer. The couple pictured together above
Faive posted the above picture and apology to Instagram on Sunday
Faivre, who won a gold in the team event at last year’s world championships, apologized for his outburst on Facebook.
‘I said that the performance of the team was the least of my concerns when responding to a question (about) how I felt about the French team’s overall good performance,’ the 26-year-old, who comes from the southern city of Nice, wrote.
‘When asked to describe my feelings on the race 10 minutes after I had crossed the finish line, only my performance and my failure were present.
Faivre was kicked off the team after telling reporters on Sunday that he only cares about his individual performance, not his team’s. He’s pictured congratulating Shiffrin above after her gold medal win in the ladies’ giant slalom on Thursday
The win on Thursday was Shiffrin’s second Olympic gold medal
‘People don’t react the same faced with failure and I have to admit, coming from the south, that I am hot-blooded. So words somehow overtook my thoughts.
‘I did not want to show disrespect to anyone, I was extremely proud to have represented my country and I thank those people who made it possible.’
American Shiffrin, 22, who won gold in the women’s giant slalom, did not stop to speak to reporters on Monday after clocking the 15th fastest time in the second training session for the downhill.
Faivre would have been a strong contender for a place in the France team for the mixed sex Alpine team event, which makes its Olympic debut on Saturday.
Shiffrin isn’t having too great of an Olympics either. Despite starting off strong with a gold medal win in the giant slalom, she disappointed fans by placing fourth in the regular slalom – an event she was expected to win.
She then pulled out of the downhill event when a scheduling change bumped the alpine combined up to Thursday – meaning she would have to compete in back to back days.
Faivre has since apologized for his comments, saying he ‘did not want to show disrespect to anyone’
Shiffrin and her boyfriend pictured left and right