CNN
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Olympics commentator Bob Ballard was dropped from Eurosport, the European pay TV firm, on Monday after the veteran sportscaster made sexist feedback concerning the Australian girls’s swim crew.
Following the conclusion of Saturday 4×100 meter freestyle relay, throughout which Crew Australia gained the gold medal, Ballard commented on the crew’s obvious delay in exiting the Paris Aquatic Centre as they celebrated.
“Effectively, the ladies simply ending off. You already know what girls are like, hanging round, doing their make-up,” Ballard stated.
Lizzie Simmonds, the previous Olympian and his Eurosport co-host, instantly rebuffed his feedback.
“Outrageous, Bob,” Simmons stated, as Ballard laughed. “A number of the males are doing that as nicely.”
A spokesperson for Eurosport, which distributes the Olympic broadcast in Europe and shares the identical dad or mum firm as CNN, confirmed Ballard had been dropped over his feedback.
“We will affirm that Bob Ballard has been faraway from our commentary roster with rapid impact,” it stated in a press release Monday.
Ballard, a veteran commentator who has reported on sports activities because the mid-’80s, has coated a number of Olympic video games. He additionally works as a music and information presenter for BBC Native Radio.
In a press release posted Monday on social media, Ballard supplied an apology for his remarks.
“The feedback I made in the course of the Australian freestyle relay victory ceremony on Saturday have brought on some offence. It was by no means my intention to upset or belittle anybody and, if I did, I apologise. I’m an enormous advocate of ladies’s sport,” he wrote.
“I shall miss the Eurosport crew, dearly and want all of them the very best for the remainder of the Olympics,” he added.