French Olympian apologizes for racist and conspiratorial tweets: 'Terribly ashamed'

The Paris Olympics were a highlight for French athletes, including middle- and long-distance runner Hugo Hay.

On August 10, Hay was preparing for his run in the Olympic 5,000-meter final later that day. His preparations would be interrupted just a few hours before the race, however, as his online past came back to haunt him. 

In newly resurfaced tweets posted to X (formerly Twitter), Hay made insulting and racist remarks. The tweets, written between 2013 and 2018 contained numerous slurs, directed at people of Arabic and African descent.

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In another tweet in 2016, he posted inflammatory material linking Muslims with acts of terror.

While in July 2017, he also targeted the Jewish community, writing a post of a conspiratorial nature suggesting people of the Jewish faith held a disproportionate amount of power in the world. 

Now aged 27, the Frenchman was between 17 and 21 when these tweets were posted on X.

Messages that oppose his interview with Humanité on August 4, in which he strongly criticized Emmanuel Macron. He had notably declared: "I have the impression that his entourage leaves him on his pedestal (...) I would have two or three things to say to him." In the same interview, he stated his opposition to the far right.

Just before his final, Hugo Hay reacted to the emerging controversy and apologized on his social networks: "Tweets that I published a few years ago are resurfacing today, I firmly want to apologize to all the people who were hurt by my words. I am terribly ashamed."

The Frenchman does not deny his messages and explains: "I am no longer the stupid teenager who made these insulting, hurtful remarks. Nothing, not even dubious humor, can justify them, neither in a private nor in a public setting."

He concluded with these words: "Those who have known me for a long time know that I am the opposite of the xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and misogynistic values conveyed by these tweets."

Hugo Hay finished 16th in the 5,000m final, 13 seconds behind the winner, Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

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