Olympic Skier: No Regrets For Topless Pics
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm back in this warm studio because, quite frankly, it was lightning out there. Thunder snow, so I was told I have to come inside. In the "Sports Lead now," while we suffer through the winter weather in the U.S., it's so warm at the winter games. How warm is it? That's what you're supposed to say. It's so warm that the skiers are wearing tank tops. American Olympic skier went sleeveless on the slopes as temperatures hit the 60s in Sochi, Russia. The Canadian women's hockey team was even spotted outside warming up in the sunshine, some of them in shorts. One Olympian is in trouble for taking off too many clothes, not in Sochi, but during a photo shoot that took place years ago, footage of which just conveniently surfaced online during the Olympics. Behind the scenes, video of Lebanese skier, Jackie Chamoun was taken on the slopes of a famous Lebanon ski resort almost three years ago for an Austrian ski calendar. Now she's the subject, believe it or not, of an investigation by Lebanon's Olympic Committee in order to avoid, quote, "harming Lebanon's reputation," unquote. Many of her fellow countrymen and women are baring all now on social media to show that they have her back and frankly, her front as well. Nick Paton Walsh is in Sochi. He has that report -- Nick.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Days ago, Lebanese Jackie Chamoun was just another skier and then these pictures shout three years ago for a skiing calendar when she was just 19 surfaced online with a more revealing video of the making of that calendar. Lebanon's conservatives erupted in outrage, the minister for sports even demanding an investigation. Chamoun was under the wrong spotlight, but in her first interview, she's defiant. (on camera): Do you now wish you never went to the mountains for that photo shoot? You still would have done it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I wish the making of it would go out, but I don't regret doing the calendar.</s>WALSH (voice-over): And to Lebanon's minister for sports who was offended, what does she say?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot say anything about political leaders.</s>PATON (on camera): Why not? He said lots of things about you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can say whatever he wants, but I don't like to criticize anyone, anyway.</s>WALSH (voice-over): Conservative outrage was fought with liberal outrage many asking why this brief nudity mattered at all in a country where bombs and sectarian violence infect lives daily. Hundreds of Lebanese women and men began posting pictures of themselves naked with the hashtag #stripforjackie in solidarity. Chamoun is grateful.</s>JACKIE SHAMOUN, LEBANESE OLMYPIC SKIER: I would tell them to be free and not to strip completely naked. I saw this movement and pages were created for me. Lebanese are just doing funny pictures. This is so amusing and funny that I think that it has to stop. It has to stop.</s>WALSH: What would she say to the conservatives who criticize her?</s>SHAMOUN: I'd like to apologize to them.</s>WALSH (on camera): Why would you apologize?</s>SHAMOUN: I don't think also I did anything wrong by doing the calendar. I don't want to affect them.</s>WALSH: Shouldn't they come to the modern time rather than you go back to the past?</s>SHAMOUN: Yes, I believe they should but it's going to take time.</s>WALSH: In many ways, I think a young woman only 22 there now exhausted by the attention of the past few days, bewildered by the focus she's received from conservatives in Lebanon and wanting to get on with the skiing -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Nick Paton Walsh in Sochi, thank you so much. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.