Did French Skier Deserve To Be Booted?

In the Olympics, it seems that word can harm you, and in the case of French alpine skier Mathieu Faivre, words can cost him dearly.

Many of you probably don't know who Mathieu Faivre is, but you might know him as the boyfriend of Mikaela Shiffrin, the American skier who has been generating buzz for the way she has performed so far in these Olympics. Faivre is also a skier with the French ski team for these Olympics, and came in seventh in Sunday's men's giant slalom race. This race featured four of the top seven finishers being French.

Faivre was asked about that after the race and rather than congratulating the team for winning a bronze medal, he said, "If you only knew what I think about the group collective...I'm here to race for myself only." Uh-oh. Not words you want to say, especially if you're part of a group dynamic, which he is.

It was obvious Faivre was not happy with finishing seventh in the race, saying he was "disgusted with the result...it was like a slap on the face." But this last quotes went too far, and now he'll be on a plane back to France and he will be replaced on the French team for Saturday's competition.

A French ski director called the remarks, "Not in the spirit of the team." They clearly were not, since this event was a team dynamic rather than an individual dynamic.

These comments, however, come on the heels of Mike Milbury's comments about Slava Voynov's domestic violence case just the other day. However, in this case, Milbury has yet to face punishment, if there ever will be, while Faivre is being sent packing for his comments about the individual factor in all of this.

Faivre has since apologized for his comments, but it wasn't enough to save him from the face of scorn, especially from the French ski team.

Look, the French team obviously is embarrassed by this and they feel like they had no choice but to send him home for those comments. I get that. The French team obviously takes into accounts PR matters when it comes to their players. The Olympics, especially this event, was about team first, individual second. Faivre needed to face the consequences of that, but I will say this: I don't think comments are a reason for somebody to get jetted from the Olympics. Yes, I can understand the ramifications behind it and yes I can understand that the French team feels they need to take a big punishment when it comes to their athletes' comments, but I feel like Faivre could've at least apologized to the team and be allowed to stay. I didn't think being forced out off the team was reason enough. It's very weird about France's system when it comes to free speech and all that. It's definitely not the U.S.'s version, which is more lenient than Frances. At the very least, though, he should've just apologized and stayed on the team. However, I do understand that France feels this punishment was just enough. I can't knock it because their free speech is much different from ours. In our case, we would've at least apologized and go about our business.

Faivre learned a valuable lesson here. In France, your comments can harm you and your teammates. Now, he'll have to sit on the sidelines for the rest of the competition. I feel bad for him, but in France, it's much different than in the United States. At least he can still root for Shiffrin.