Disney cuts ties with Olympian-turned-escort Suzy Favor Hamilton

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

An Olympian’s secret life as an escort has cost her future speaking arrangements with Disney. Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, a competitive runner who garnered several U.S. titles, admitted Thursday that she was a prostitute after the Smoking Gun website posted a story revealing she has been working for a Las Vegas escort service.

She had been expected to speak at an August 2013 expo during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend.

Bob Hitchcock, a spokesman for runDisney, which operates the company’s races, told the Orange County Register that Favor Hamilton is no longer scheduled for future Disney events.

In August, the three-time Olympian spoke at and led a dance at Disneyland Half Marathon events in Anaheim. In February she appeared at a Princess Half Marathon at Florida’s Walt Disney World.

The Smoking Gun implied that Favor Hamilton continued to work as an escort, under the alias ‘Kelly Lundy,’ during her trip to Anaheim. The escort service where she worked had posted on its Twitter account that ‘Kelly’ would be available in Orange County during that weekend, the Smoking Gun said.

Favor Hamilton, on Twitter, apologized and tried to explain her choices.

‘I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression,’ she tweeted. ‘As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody.’

ALSO:

Veteran Sacramento cop accused of raping 76-year-old woman DEA not cooperating on probe into suspect’s death, LAPD says

Dec. 21, 2012: Schools fight rumors fueled by Mayan ‘doomsday’

-- Adolfo Flores