Sochi Winter Olympics 2014: Lebanese Skier Jackie Chamoun Topless Pics and Footage Spark Controversy [VIDEO]
Lebanese Olympic skier Jackie Chamoun is already making headlines, but it's not for hitting the slopes in her ski suit. Instead, the athlete is under scrutiny in her home country after topless pictures and a video surfaced on the web.
Chamoun participated in an Austrian calendar shoot which took place at Faraya ski resort and featured both male and female skiers. In the pictures, Chamoun poses atop of a snowy mountain. In some pictures she wears clothes, but in the more controversial pictures, she is topless in pink underwear and topless with green ski pants. In the final pictures, the 22-year-old athlete's breasts are covered with her arms and skis.
The calendar was released last year but gained infamy after a video was uploaded onto YouTube yesterday with behind-the-scenes footage of the photo shoot, which features Chamoun's full exposed breasts.
"I'm not used to posing with no clothes on," Chamoun says at the end of the video.
Now, TIME reports that the Lebanese government is holding an investigation to see how the leak affects the country's reputation, and Faisal Karami, Lebanon caretaker sports minister, asked the Olympic Committee president "to the take the required steps to [avoid] harming Lebanon's reputation and international participation," Lebanon's National News Agency reports via ABC News.
Yesterday, Chamoun said she took the pictures three years ago, and that the footage was not mean to be seen by the public.
"Anyways, I want to apologize to all of you, I know that Lebanon is a conservative country and this is not the image that reflects our culture," she explained via Facebook. "I fully understand if you want to criticise this."
The Lebanese Olympic Committee will take no action on Chamoun, and she will still participate in the Winter Games, Reuters reports.
"Now that I'm at the Olympic Games, these photos that I never saw before are being shared," Chamoun continued. "It is sad. All I can ask to each of you who saw this, is to stop spreading it, it will really help me focusing on what is really important now: my trainings and race."
The controversial NSFW video is below: