Comments on: Kevin Backstrom “kicked off the Swedish Snowboard Team for Sexism”

By: aftonbladet

aftonbladet — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:20:34 +0000

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By: Scandal Navians Trailer – Whitelines Snowboarding | Whitelines Snowboarding

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:10:07 +0000

[...] Besides spawning some questionable pop acts (by this author’s tastes anyway) and some tennis greats, Scandinavians, with their blonde hair and blue eyes are also rather good at snowboarding. And many of ‘em aren’t shy of a scandal or two. [...]

By: tristan

tristan — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:24:57 +0000

So I think the best comments on here have to be the contributions from @Swede really. Send an email to tristan@whitelines.com to claim your mug Swede!

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for our video interview with Kevin, dropping soon.

By: brusti

brusti — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:42:21 +0000

I just recently tumbled over KB Insta…amazing!
Somebody probably just got jealous cause he doesn’t get as much ass there in the Swedish Olympic committee..no wonder if you are so stuck up!
100 points to Tor Lundstrom for backing KB…in fact all the swedish riders should unite and back out.
Create tomorrow’s headlines

By: Swede

Swede — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:54:46 +0000

Ok I found a picture of the deleted blog post:

http://gfx.aftonbladet-cdn.se/image/16311121/574/normal/b208ed36e6443/BLOGG.jpg

Should pretty much settle the debate. Thanks for updating the article Tristan!

By: Emeleef

Emeleef — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 01:44:26 +0000

In this day and age, unfortunately, I think there comes a time (perhaps when you get selected for your national team) that you have to realise that what you post online could affect your job. You hear stories of employees getting fired because of comments they’ve left on Facebook or Twitter and I’m not saying this is right or wrong, just that this is the world we are living in.
I have friends with two Facebook accounts. One with their real name that they use for industry “friends”, where they post things that they know won’t affect future job prospects and then a pseudonym account for other banter.
It’s harsh Kevin got dropped like a hot spud and the strip club thing shouldn’t have got him kicked off any teams but what you post online is kind of another matter.
But, Teams and sponsors etc. need to make it clear what they expect from their riders and what they can or cannot get away with online.
In the past I have had to sign contracts for jobs that have specified things I am or am not allowed to post anywhere online.
I know snowboarding is a lifestyle but if you reach the level where it’s also kinda your job, then you do have to be a little more careful.

By: Dave S

Dave S — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:01:54 +0000

I’m with Becky, its just a bit tacky really (the photos, not the joke). But then maybe so is a snowboard mag running a caption competition, with a sub-par Spinal Tap image, bit like something you’d see in Nuts.

By: Becks Gibson

Becks Gibson — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:59:11 +0000

Posting unfunny pictures making light of violence against women is also a great way to stop them sucking your cock

By: Guy

Guy — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:00:55 +0000

Steve Hughes has a point too on his ‘what’s wrong with being offended?’ sketch http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=29555 haha but this story is quite ridiculous

By: tristan

tristan — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:18:24 +0000

Hi @Swede and @Ems, interesting! Thanks for the correction. I realised he had written a blog attacking journalists, but that was taken down before we wrote this – the only thing I could find was one where he told journos to “fuck off” which may not be super-professional, but also isn’t overly offensive. Similarly the cartoon of the girl with the mosquito speech bubble was also taken down, so we at Whitelines never saw it, otherwise we obviously would have mentioned it!

I agree that the cartoon sounds a lot more offensive than merely posting pictures of semi-naked girls. But it was still his instagram feed more generally, and the visit to the strip club, that was cited as the main reason for kicking him out in the article I read.

Either way, I think the question of whether he’s the victim of manufactured controversy still stands, although (given what you’ve told me) it was undoubtedly more of his own making than we’d previously realised. I’ve updated the article accordingly. Thanks!