Kara Goucher has a big problem with President Donald Trump‘s comments on the COVID-19 pandemic. The two-time Olympic runner told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she “felt really disrespected” by Trump’s tweet of “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” Trump sent the message on Monday when leaving the hospital after being treated for the coronavirus.
Goucher first learned about Trump’s tweet when she was about to leave for Minnesota to see her grandfather before he died from COVID-19. “I just felt really disrespected, I felt like my grandfather was disrespected, I felt like all the people who have been suffering through this were disrespected,” Goucher said as reported by PEOPLE. Goucher’s comments also said Trump’s remarks were “so tone-deaf and just really not the right thing to say.” And when talking about his late grandfather, Goucher added, “this is my life. This is his life. He is literally taking his last very painful breaths.”
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Goucher also responded to Trump’s tweet with a message of her own. “As my grandfather lies in a bed struggling to take his last breaths due to Covid, I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything more offensive or tone-deaf in my life,” Goucher announced that her grandfather died of COVID-19 on Tuesday as family members surrounded him. She also thanked her fans and followers for showing love for her grandfather.
When talking to Cooper, Goucher said she was “glad that the president got top care,” but not everybody who contracts COVID-19 is that lucky. “That is not the reality for hundreds of thousands of other people and their family members,” she explained. “It just felt very dismissive.”
“I was just not happy about that tweet at all,” she added. “[My grandfather’s] life is worthy and he deserves to be respected.”
Goucher, 42, competed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 Olympics in London. In the 2008 games, Goucher finished ninth in the 10,000m event, and in the 2012 games, Goucher finished 10th in the marathon. Other achievements by Goucher include finishing third in the Boston Marathon in 2009, finishing second in the 10,000m event in the 2007 World Championships and earning a bronze medal in the 2008 New York Marathon. She is married to Adam Goucher who competed in the 2000 Olympics.
