Russian Olympic gold medallist and torch-bearer Irina Rodnina apologized to President Barrack Obama after she posted a controversial racist tweet, though it was published on Twitter five months ago. Irina Rodnina claims a hacker posted the tweet, and her daughter Alyona Minkovski defends her apology.

Irina Rodnina deleted the tweet, which includes an image of a banana superimposed over a picture of the president and the first lady Michelle Obama, which was sent by her friends in the United States. Irina Rodnina tweeted about the whole ordeal, saying:

However, according to Russian journalist Evgeny Felaman noted that Rodnina had initially defended her right to share the image by tweeting the words "Freedom of speech is freedom of speech!"

U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul wrote on his twitter account that Rodnina was guilty of "outrageous behavior, which only brings shame to her parliament and country." A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy even quoted Thomas Jefferson in response to the tweet: "Bigotry is the disease of ignorance."

Rodnina's daughter Russian-American Journalist Alyona Minkovski defended her mother by tweeting on her twitter account saying.