A petition has been set up, calling for Caitlyn Jenner to give back her Olympic gold medal.
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Caitlyn - then known as Bruce - brought home the gold medal for America in the decathlon in 1976, although some have now voiced the opinion that Caitlyn should be stripped of the honour, having since come out as transgender.
As of Thursday morning, 9000 signatories have added their names to the Change.org petition, ‘Revoke Caitlyn Jenner’s Olympic Medals’, claiming that because she participated in the ‘men’s decathlon’, it is now “only fair to all involved” that she give back her medal.
Caitlyn Jenner
Yeah… and we’re sure the fact this petition was set up on Monday, the same day her already-iconic Vanity Fair cover shoot emerged, is purely coincidence, rather than an attention-seeking move on the part of the people behind it.
While 9000 signatories might seem like a disappointingly high number - and we’ll admit, it’s 9000 more than we’d like to see - it’s practically a drop in the ocean, compared to the ‘Bring Back Jeremy Clarkson’ campaign, which got over a million, and even the campaign for Glastonbury to drop Kanye West has managed 134,000.
Comments on the HuffPost UK Facebook page have also been reassuringly condemning of the petition, with one commenter saying: “Regardless of who she is now, she EARNED the medal and what she does now did not affect what happened when she won the medal AT ALL.”
Another argued: “Olympians don't give back medals after they become too old to compete, or after they die, or if they are injured. Why should anyone give one back for simply living life?”
One Facebook user also asked: “Really? Have some people nothing better to do than victimise someone who has finally made the difficult decision to become the person they were always meant to be?”
Luckily, it doesn’t sound like the sporting community have any intention of taking Caitlyn’s medals from her, and are even honouring her for her courage at this year’s ESPY Awards.
