American track athlete Nick Symmonds gave his opinion on Russia's anti-gay law shortly following his silver medal win at the World Athletics Championship in Moscow on Tuesday.
And he didn't parse words.
"I disagree with their laws and I disagree with their views," he said staunchly on ABC news. "I'm trying to tread that fine line of being respectful as a guest in this country and also speaking against some seriously injustices that I see."
In the past couple of months, Russia has tightened up on anti-gay legislation, including laws against foreign LGBT couples adopting Russian children, as well as preventing "homosexual propaganda" from pervading the youth of the nation.
Symmonds, who openly and vehemently backs gay rights, said that he wanted to don a small rainbow flag pin while competing in Moscow, but worried that he'd wind up in jail, ABC reported.
"As adamant as I am about this issue, I don't know what me sitting in jail is good for," he said.
And perhaps it was a good idea to keep his opinions under wraps until after the race-many Russians who have spoken out against the slew of anti-gay bills have been incarcerated, beaten up, or harassed by supporters.
After nabbing the silver medal on Tuesday night, Symmonds dedicated the victory to his LGBT friends and acquaintances.
"I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them," he told R-Sport, a Russian sports site.
In an interview with ABC, Symmonds expressed the frustration he experienced while grappling with this issue.
"This has... been personal for me. From day one, I've always spoken out against this one. It's just so ludicrous you would give rights to some people and not to others. It was just such a slap in the face I couldn't sit back and watch it happen to some of my friends," he stated.
Symmonds, who was a 2012 Olympic hopeful, was put in the spotlight by gay rights activists who admonished him for not calling out the homophobic laws in Russia, which he initially said he would not do.
On Runner's World Magazine's website, he wrote, "the playing field is not a place for politics."
Although Russian officials have told the International Olympic Committee that participants in the sport are exempt from the law, they have also said that the legislation would still stay put while the games went on.
