John Moody, executive editor for Fox News, says the "darker, gayer, different" U.S. Olympic team will not win its share of medals.
The high-ranking editor's comments, which stirred outrage among gay rights groups, came in a column for the Fox News website.
"Unless it's changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been 'Faster, Higher, Stronger,'" said Moody, who is also executive vice president for Fox News. "It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) would like to change that to 'Darker, Gayer, Different.' If your goal is to win medals, that won't work."
By Friday afternoon, the column had been removed.
"John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News and has been removed," the network said in a statement, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Moody took a swipe at a
Washington Post story detailing how the USOC is pleased the team includes more African-Americans, Asian Americans and the first two openly gay men.
"A USOC official was quoted this week expressing pride (what else?) about taking the most diverse U.S. squad ever to the Winter Olympics," he said.
"That was followed by a, frankly, embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on this year's U.S. team. No sport that we are aware of awards points — or medals — for skin color or sexual orientation."
And Moody asked if the athletes on the team were selected because they are "the best at what they do, or because they're the best publicity for our current obsession with having on each from Column A, B and C?"
He was critical how some are demanding sports in general bow to "political correctness."
"Insisting that sports bow to political correctness by assigning teams quotas for race, religion or sexuality is like saying that professional basketball goals will be worth four points if achieved by a minority in that sport — white guys, for instance — instead of the two or three points awarded to black players, who make up 81 percent of the NBA. Any plans to fix that disparity? Didn't think so."
Moody stressed he was against teams denying athletes a place on their squads because of prejudice.
"If someone is denied a slot on a team because of prejudice, that's one thing," he said. "Complaining that every team isn't a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition. At the Olympic level, not everyone is a winner. Not everyone gets a little plastic trophy to take home.
"Sorry. 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' still works better than 'We win because we're different.'"
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.