Kristi Yamaguchi Touts Romney’s Olympic Achievement in Ad
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Jonathan Leibson/FilmMagic(WASHINGTON) — After a week of headlines over Mitt Romney’s London Olympics security skepticism, the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future is bringing in some golden reinforcements to tout the Republican presidential candidate’s 2002 Olympic achievements.
In an ad released Monday, Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi commends Romney for bringing a “huge sense of hope” to the Salt Lake City games, which were rocked by a bribery scandal before Romney took over.
Jimmy Shea, who took home the gold in 2002 for the Skelaton, says in the ad that “Mitt gets things done. He changed my life.”
And finally speed skater and 2002 gold medalist Derek Parra says: “Mitt allowed athletes like myself to realize our dreams.”
Both Yamaguchi and Parra have donated to Romney’s presidential campaign this cycle as well as his last bid in 2008. Yamaguchi and her husband Bred Hedican each donated $2,300 to Romney’s campaign in 2007 and she donated $2,500 to support Romney’s current run.
Parra gave $2,300 to Romney’s 2007 Republican primary campaign and has donated $1,000 this time around.
While Yamaguchi has not made an official Romney endorsement, the figure skating champion appeared alongside Romney in February for a 10-year anniversary celebration of the 2002 Olympics. Yamaguchi, who won gold in the 1992 games and was a goodwill ambassador to the 2002 games, said that because of Romney, the Salt Lake City games were a “tremendous success.”
The Restore Our Future ad comes days after the U.S. Olympics Committee told the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA to take down an ad featuring footage of the 2002 Olympics. The committee banned the use of any Olympics footage in political ads, which caused the pro-Romney Super PAC to also take down an ad last week.
“We will not allow Olympic footage to be used in any political ad, positive or negative, per the IOC’s Olympic Charter,” USOC spokesperson Patrick Sandusky said in a statement. “For anything even remotely negative to be associated with that time-honored, inspirational moment would be extremely unfortunate.”
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