BEIJING — Taylor Phinney wasn’t here when it happened. But he saw it. He was in London and saw teammate Bobby Lea’s face on the Financial Times’ cover. Lea was wearing a mask as he arrived at Beijing’s airport, launching a controversy that has hit Phinney’s U.S. track cycling team at its core.
It was the only team that wore masks to protect the athletes from Beijing’s infamous smog. When he first saw the paper, Boulder’s 18-year-old Olympian laughed.
“Then I got here and learned what happened. (Teammate) Mike Friedman was really upset about it,” Phinney said.
Phinney didn’t wear a mask when he arrived. However, he did wear one here when he competed in a World Cup event in December. This time, he didn’t think he needed it and didn’t want to give the wrong impression. Still, the reaction worldwide has been stunning.
“It’s weird to come to the Olympics and have all this weird media attention,” Phinney said. “Mike on his blog would get hate mail. He’d be reading that every day. We had to take his BlackBerry away from him. He’d just get depressed.
“It was people from all over. They were saying, like, ‘Way to be American.’ ”
Phinney doesn’t understand what the problem is.
“The thing about the masks is they’re USOC masks,” he said. “A doctor from the USOC sent a note saying, ‘You should wear these masks in all transportation centers.’ The fact that the USOC didn’t back that wasn’t very cool.”
Phinney, who competes in the individual pursuit prelims Friday, said the issue is behind the team, and while his teammates have had their down moments, he has had none. He rubbed shoulders with the U.S. men’s basketball team and has hung out with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team.
His father, former Tour de France stagewinner Davis Phinney, arrived Tuesday, and Taylor was set to meet his parents, sister and girlfriend before attending the Angola-U.S. men’s basketball game Tuesday.
“So, I’m stoked,” he said.
He’s glad his dad is here, as he had a slight downturn after successful brain surgery in early April to relieve symptoms from Parkinson’s disease. He watched his son win the world junior championship in Cape Town, South Africa, last month and then had to return home to Boulder.
“He got really tired,” Taylor said. “The trip took a lot out of him. But I think he’s built way back up now. He was just so excited after the surgery. He wanted to go back to his normal life.”
