President Barack Obama Tuesday named openly gay tennis legend Billie Jean King on the US delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi amid a storm over a Russian law targeting homosexuals.
The comparatively low-key US delegation to the Games, which begin on February 7, lacks a serving US cabinet member and was unveiled at a time of US tensions with Russia over gay rights and Moscow's decision to offer refuge to fugitive American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
By contrast, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill lead the US delegation to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.
The US group at the Sochi opening ceremonies will be led by former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano and includes King, retired figure skater Brian Boitano, US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and White House deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors.
Russia's adoption in June of a disputed law prohibiting the dissemination of information about homosexuality to minors has sparked protests from international human rights groups and calls for a boycott of the country's first post-Soviet Games.
Obama said in August that he had did not agree with the idea of an Olympic boycott but was "really looking forward" to US gay or lesbian athletes bringing home medals, which he said would "go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there".
"If Russia doesn't have gay or lesbian athletes, then, it'll probably make their team weaker," he said.
King won six Wimbledon singles titles and four US Opens, plus a flurry of doubles crowns, and was outed in a lawsuit after having an affair with another woman and said she did not feel comfortable being openly gay until later in life.
USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan hailed the president's decision as a "stroke of genius".
"Think of the millions of Russian citizens who are gay, or have a gay family member or friend, living in a nation where discrimination based on sexual orientation is not only tolerated, but promoted," Brennan wrote.
"And the US president sends one of the world's most recognizable faces of equality and inclusion to attend the Opening Ceremony in such a visible role?"
