A veteran sports commentator has been sacked from his Olympics role after making a sexist remark about Australian female swimmers following their gold medal win.
As the 4x100m freestyle relay team were making their way off the pool deck in Paris, Bob Ballard said they were “finishing up”, adding “you know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make up”.
The clip quickly went viral and broadcaster Eurosport later said he had been removed from the commentary line-up.
Ballard has yet to comment publicly on his remarks.
It was sincere. I’m American, and the US didn’t officially adopt the “Czechia” name until 2021. The only reason I knew about it was because I noticed the name on Apple Maps (which apparently added it in 2020) and asked a European friend about it. I literally told my mother and sister about it a month ago and they had no idea.
I have no idea why “Czechoslovakia” often remains in the mindshare of Americans but I’d guess it’s to do with WWII in history books, and the fact that Czechia is rarely ever a topic of conversation. "Czechoslovakia” was apparently dropped in the 1940s. Recent enough that people’s grandparents might never have known. Information didn’t flow as fast or freely back then. I was born in the 80s, and I know I had to look up the difference between the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia at some point.
The announcer guy, I promise it was a slip up and no intent of disrespect. He corrected himself. And in whose interest would it serve to be disrespectful towards Czechia anyway? There’s no incentive, is there?
1918-1992, occupied 1939-1945. Long story short the marriage didn’t work out but they divorced on good terms. Both Czechia and Slovakia have been EU members since 2004.
Huh, I looked that up and still messed it up. I’m terrible with European geopolitics…
No worries, and glad you learnt something!