A Denver Post sports reporter was fired Monday after tweeting he was "very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend," The Hill reported.
The newspaper said Terry Frei was "no longer an employee" of the paper following his "disrespectful and unacceptable tweet" Sunday.
Frei's tweet came after Japanese driver Takuma Sato on Sunday became the first driver from an Asian country to win the Indianapolis 500, known as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."
"I apologize to Takuma Sato," Frei wrote in a statement he posted on Twitter after he deleted his original tweet. "I made a stupid reference, during an emotional weekend, to one of the nations that we fought in World War II. I'm sorry, I know better, and I'm angry at myself because there was not constructive purpose in saying it."
Frei said in his apology his perspective was shaped by his father's service during World War II.
"He flew 67 missions, crossing the 300 combat hours threshold, and earned the World War II Air Medal three times. I have written much other material about American athletes in World War II. I researched and wrote quite graphically about the deaths of my father's teammates, Dave Schreiner and Bob Baumann, in the Battle of Okinawa."
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