COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Four-time Olympic gold medal basketball player Teresa Edwards will serve as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s chief of mission for the 2012 Games, taking a spot vacated by Peter Vidmar.
Edwards will be the liaison officer for the American team in its dealings with the International Olympic Committee and local organizers.
It is largely an honorary spot, one that originally went to Vidmar, the gymnast who won two gold medals at the 1984 Olympics.
But Vidmar stepped down after a media report came out about his opposition to gay marriage, and openly gay figure skater Johnny Weir, a two-time Olympian, called Vidmar’s selection “disgraceful.”
Vidmar, a Mormon, said he didn’t want distractions caused by his religious beliefs to take away from the U.S. team.
