‘You’re hanging me out to dry’: Watch tense moment Irish Olympian Kellie Harrington refuses to answer questions on controversial anti-immigration tweet she posted, and later deleted
- Kellie Harrington won Olympic gold in Tokyo 2021 but had a tense encounter on Sports show Off the ball after being questioned on her views on immigration
- Read more: European boxing champion Maksym Galinichev is killed fighting for Ukraine aged 22
An Irish Olympian awkwardly shut down an interview after she was asked by a journalist about a controversial tweet she made last year – accusing him of ‘hanging me out to dry.’
Boxer Kellie Harrington, 33, from Dublin, retweeted a video in October 2022 that contained negative comments about immigration – but refused to be drawn on her own views in a video interview with Irish sports programme Off the Ball this week.
Harrington, who won a gold medal in the 2021 Olympics, was asked by presenter Shane Hannon to clarify her personal opinions on immigration, after he told her: ‘In your position as a role model, those comments carry weight.’
The video clip showing the tense encounter has now been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
The retweet Harrington made in October, later deleted, pointed her followers to GB News footage, in which Dutch journalist Eva Vlaardingerbroek was quoted as saying European girls were being ‘sacrificed on the altar of mass migration’, as she reported on the murder of a 12-year-old schoolgirl named Lola in Paris.
A stoney-faced Kellie Harrington appearing on sports show Off the Ball; the Irish Olympic boxer refused to answer presenter Shane Hannon’s questions about a controversial retweet she made back in October – but later released a statement on it
Harrington said the footage offered a ‘powerful message’ to leaders and retweeted it before deleting it later.
After initially claiming she had ‘switched off’ while Hannon was asking his question on the subject, he repeated it, only for Harrington, who grew up in Dublin, to continue to avoid answering it, with her PR audible in the background asking the journalist to desist from his line of questioning.
As the conversation became increasingly strained the boxer accused Hannon of ‘hanging me out to dry’ before the interview was eventually terminated, with the boxer saying she wasn’t on the show to ‘answer questions about politics’, and telling the host to ‘Be like Elsa and let it go.’
‘Harrington said sports presenter Shane Hannon was ‘like a dog with a bone’ when he persistently asked her for her views on immigration
The sports star looked deeply uncomfortable when faced with questions about her views on immigration on sports show Off the ball
‘Be like Elsa and let it go’ Harrington and her PR told the journalist to ask other questions
The athlete, who grew up in Dublin, posted on Twitter yesterday to explain her position
Harrington claimed gold in Tokyo in 2021 for Ireland in the women’s lightweight category
Yesterday Harrington issued a statement saying she was ‘caught off guard’ by the line of questioning.
The boxer took to her social media accounts, saying that she was all about ‘community, inclusion and diversity.’
She said when she realised that her retweet has caused ‘hurt’, she ‘immediately deleted the tweet and I apologised to them’.
The boxer added that she was ‘not prepared for a question unrelated to my sport’ during the interview with Hannon, and said: ‘How this came across is not reflective of me as a person or my thoughts’.
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