Olympic speed skater Jutta Leerdam's Instagram post ignited controversy after she shared a picture of herself on a private jet en route to the Winter Olympics in Italy.
As the New York Post reported, Leerdam, fiancée of social media personality and boxer Jake Paul, flew to Milan on February 1, separate from her fellow Netherlands representatives.
The Instagram post showed her and a few friends aboard a private KIMI Aviation jet that was decked out in Olympic decorations. She posed with platters of steak, tuna, and shrimp salads, captioning the post, "Off to Milano."
Leerdam won a gold medal in the 1,000-meter race, and took silver in the 500 meters, but her success on the ice did little to justify her actions in the eyes of many.
Commenters called out the Olympic athlete for deserting her teammates to fly private before taking the stage with them for the century-old global sporting event.
Private air travel produced up to 21.5 million tons of carbon pollution in 2023, according to a study by the International Council of Clean Transportation. This figure exceeded that produced by all flights that left from London's Heathrow Airport in 2023, per ICCT. As Reuters observed, Heathrow handles around 475,000 aircraft movements per year.
Another study reported on by PBS found that pollution from private jets represented 1.8% of the total carbon emissions created by the aviation industry as a whole in 2023, which accounted for 4% of all human-caused pollution. While only a small percentage, the concerning issue is that "the damage is done by those with a lot of money and the cost is borne by those with very little money," study lead author Stefan Gossling said.
Leerdam's behavior illustrated a broader industry trend of mass departures of private jets before major sporting or political events.
"A private jet like that really sets a bad example for your fans," one commenter wrote under Leerdam's Instagram post.
"Her behavior is horrible to me, like that of a diva," said Johan Derksen, a Dutch journalist and former soccer player, per the New York Post. "The whole of the Netherlands is starting to get a bit fed up with her behavior."
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