Bode Miller: Russia's gay rights issue is 'embarrassing'

• She is a two-time national champion
• Lysacek stands behind USOC%27s assurance there will be no discrimination
• Wagner says she doesn%27t feel it%27s her place to tell Russians how to %22run their country%22

PARK CITY, Utah – It would have been easier to stick to the party line, to skate around the issue. Figure skater Ashley Wagner instead spoke up when asked about Russia's anti-gay law.

At first her voice quivered a bit. "For me, I have gay family members, and I have a lot of friends in the LBGT community. I'm even so nervous to talk about this," she said with a small laugh. Then with heartfelt eloquence, she found her footing.

"I have such a firm stance on this that we should all have equal rights," the two-time national champion said.

Alpine skier Bode Miller also attacked the issue.

"I think it's so embarrassing that there's countries and people who are that ignorant. … As a human being, I think it's embarrassing," the four-time Olympian said.

When the USA's top Winter Olympic hopefuls kicked off the first of a three-day media summit Monday, Wagner and Miller were the exceptions.

Most athletes treated the topic as if it were an Olympic flame too hot to handle.

Wagner's position certainly wasn't strident, but compared to the five other figure skaters who sat alongside her, it was as if she'd wrapped herself in a rainbow flag.

Olympic champion Evan Lysacek said he stood behind the U.S. Olympic Committee's assurance that everyone's rights during the Games would be protected.

"I prefer to leave it up to them to comment, because I think one voice is the most powerful with a political matter like this."

Though figure skating is thought to have more gay athletes than any other Olympic sport, the other figure skaters at the news conference — Max Aaron, Gracie Gold and Agnes Zawadzki — followed Lysacek's lead.

Wagner was the exception.

"I think growing up in skating, I was surrounded by the LGBT community, so I grew up very aware because I was around it so often, and some of the kindest people I know are gay figure skaters," Wagner told USA TODAY Sports. "At the end of the day I'm an athlete, and that's what I'm focused on. But I felt that too many people are quiet and they're not comfortable sharing their opinion, and it's just my opinion."

Given the sensitive nature of the issue, the USOC and each sport's national governing body prepare their athletes thoroughly with media training to handle such situations.

Several athletes said they had been told to express their opinion but also understand the issue and the repercussions.

"You don't have to choose sides on that issue or say any comments, but they want you to know where they stand and what they're telling the public, and I think that's very good for us athletes," bobsled pilot Jazmine Fenlator said about the USOC and her own federation.

"You don't want to say anything that's completely (erratic) next to what your organization that supports you says, but you're also entitled to your opinion. So they tell us to feel free but also know some of the repercussions of making bold statements. Now you become a politician when you're there to compete, and they don't want those distractions for us."

Once the athletes arrive in Sochi, they are obligated to follow Rule 50 of the Olympic charter, which states "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted" at any Olympic site.

Miller also took aim at the premise of Rule 50.

"Politics in sports and athletics are always intertwined even though people try to keep them separate," he said. "Asking an athlete to go somewhere and compete and be a representative of a philosophy and all that different crap that goes along with it and then tell them they can't express their views is pretty hypocritical and unfair."

Billie Jean King has spent a lifetime advocating equal rights. When told about the general hesitancy U.S. athletes expressed on the topic, King weighed in.

"Sometimes I think we need a John Carlos moment," King said, referring to the U.S. track star who was expelled from the 1968 Mexico Games along with Tommie Smith for protesting racial discrimination.

"I think there's watershed moments, benchmarks," King said in a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports. "I would hope the majority of the athletes would speak out. It's a great platform."

Then she sighed.

"I wish I was 21 again and in the Olympics."

Contributing: Rachel Axon