LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 20 (Reuters) - American freestyle skier Hunter Hess nailed his first halfpipe run at the Winter Olympics on Friday and took a moment to embrace the "loser" label bestowed on him by President Donald Trump.
The 27-year-old Hess looked into a nearby TV camera, shaped an "L" with his fingers and held them to his forehead.
"Apparently I'm a loser," he told reporters with a smile.
Trump labelled Hess a “real loser” after he spoke of conflicting feelings representing his country.
Various U.S. sports figures have expressed disquiet over an aggressive immigration crackdown that saw U.S. agents shoot and kill two people in Minneapolis.
Hess said the criticism from Trump and others was distracting, but he had decided to use it as extra motivation to ski his best in the Alpine town of Livigno.
"I worked so hard to be here. I worked my entire life to make this moment happen," he said. "I'm not going to let controversy like that get in my way."
Hess said his family helped him deal with "a lot of noise and a lot of hate out there," adding that "all those people are super entitled to their opinion, and I respect it."
IMPRESSIVE RUNS
On Friday morning, he skied two impressive runs, landing smoothly after flipping and twisting high above the 7.2-meter-tall halfpipe. Hess finished fifth out of 25 skiers to advance to the evening's finals.
In the comments that irked Trump, Hess had said that just because he was wearing the U.S. flag does not mean he represents everything going on there.
"I love the United States of America. I cannot say that enough," Hess added in his comments on Friday after competing.
"My original statement, I felt like I said that, but apparently some people didn't take it that way. I'm so happy to be here, so happy to represent Team USA."
Hess, who also changed his Instagram bio to "a real loser," said he had never had a week like the one he just experienced.
"I'm just a skier from Bend, Oregon," he said.
"I've been doing the same thing with the same people my entire life, so being seen by the entire world was definitely a unique experience."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
