Mallory Kim, Democratic Times News Service
Lucy Shelton, 27 year-old downhill skier, cemented her place in Fellsian Olympic history by winning the gold medal last Thursday in women’s combined skiing at the Winter Olympics in Lumiere-Atlantis. Shelton’s victory follows on her bronze in the same event at the 2023 Hanshui Games, and her silver in slalom at New Riga in 2021.
With this victory, her first Olympic gold, Shelton’s star has risen even higher at home, as she stakes her claim to being the Hesperidan nation’s most successful international athlete. With her triumph, alongside those of first-time medalist compatriots such as So Chae-eun (gold in women’s aerial skiing) and Lewis Yates (gold in men’s halfpipe skiing), the Fellsian Olympic programme has rightly shown itself as a winter sports powerhouse.
Celebrations at home, however, are greeted with trepidation for one inescapable reason: Lucy Shelton, social media influencer and champion downhill skier, may also be a fascist.
On her social media platforms, where she boasts a combined total of over 150,000 followers, Shelton’s political views are occasionally made manifest. Alongside numerous videos of training highlights and endorsement deals with prominent brands, Shelton has also made clear her support for hardline nationalists of the country’s Christian community, including elements associated with the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the 1998-2004 Fellsian Civil War.
In November, Shelton reposted a video by Pat Chalker, fringe right-wing activist known for his insistence that the Hubbard Massacre—the 1999 execution of nearly 50 unarmed Minjian men by Christian militia fighters in the southern Fellsian town of Hubbard—was faked by the Fellsian government. The resulting controversy led to a firestorm of online criticism; Shelton declined to take down the post but stated she was unaware of Chalker’s conspiracy-mongering.
Much of Shelton’s most controversial political views are tied to sympathies for the Christian nationalist forces which waged war against the government from 1998 until the 2004 Jindong Agreement ceasefire, in a conflict which split communities along religious lines and was marked by abuses against civilians by both sides. Shelton’s uncle, Robin Hugh Shelton, held the rank of lieutenant in the Southern National Army (SNA), the most prominent of the militias fighting for an independent Christian state during the late 90s and early 2000s. Postwar reconciliation commissions implicated the SNA as a leading perpetrator of the killings and ethnic cleansing known collectively as the Fellsian Genocide, alongside the Fellsian government.
With a conflict that killed and displaced tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians alike within living memory, Shelton’s vocal advocacy has disturbed a consensus of silence regarding the conflict. In October 2024, Shelton commented a string of “100” emojis in support of a October 2024 post by a SNA veterans’ group which exalted SNA fighters as “men without peer” and “fighters in service of the community.” The following month, she sported a wrist tattoo of the Argenbonne Cross, a symbol often associated with the SNA and the Christian nationalist movement.
Shelton’s corporate endorsements—including the jewelry brand Indhwar and Astor Yoghurt—have stuck with her despite the controversy. She has also not faced public reprimands from the Fellsian Olympic Federation, although a source within the Olympic Village reported that some coaches and members of the Fellsian Olympic team have given Shelton the cold shoulder due to her political outspokenness. With the gold medal and an expected victory tour of the nation alongside the other medalists in late February, however, Shelton’s stances may present a public relations challenge for the Fellsian Olympic Federation.
Far-right politicians and commentators, including Pat Chalker, have greeted Shelton’s victory with pride. “Beautiful and victorious!!” read Chalker’s post on Shelton’s medal. “Doing all of High Fells proud.”
Many Fellsians eager to steer clear of recollections over the conflict and genocide may disagree.
