An Olympic snowboarder blasted haters who questioned her decision to move to the mountains to pursue her dreams
- Malta's Jenise Spiteri competed in the women's snowboard halfpipe event at the Beijing Olympics.
- She used her moment at the games to slam haters who doubted her pursuit of an Olympic career.
Twelve years ago, Maltese snowboarder Jenise Spiteri went all-in on her sport, moving to the mountains alongside Lake Tahoe to pursue her Olympic dreams.
A handful of haters critiqued her decision on social media and bet that "by the end of the season... she will crawl home to mommy and daddy."
Last week, Spiteri proved those guys wrong by participating in the women's snowboard halfpipe event at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. And while she was in China competing on sport's biggest stage, she took the opportunity to swing back at her naysayers from more than a decade ago.
"I've waited 12 years to respond to this," Spiteri said to the camera, "And now is finally the time."
"Dear guys who wrote this," she began, then cited a copy of the message the haters posted online. "I am not a 'stupid, ignorant, spoiled, trendy, blind, naive, helpless little bitch.'"
"Actually," Spiteri said with a smirk as she crumpled up the print-out of the post. "I'm an Olympian."
Then she threw the balled-up paper between the Olympic rings and shrugged.
As Malta's lone athlete at the winter games, the 29-year-old was the island nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony to kick off the Olympics. And even though she didn't take home any hardware from Beijing, Spiteri made a splash when she pulled a dumpling out of her pocket for a mid-competition snack during halfpipe qualifiers.
The pink-and-blue-haired star undoubtedly made her mark at the games, while her haters took in the show from their couches back home.