Paris: An Olympic commentator was straightaway removed from the broadcaster’s coverage after he made a sexist remark on Australian swimmers on Sunday at the ongoing Paris Games 2024. Covering the Games for Eurosport, Bob Ballard made a ‘make-up’ remark that didn’t go well with the organizers. The incident took place when the Australian women’s 4x100m freestyle relay of Emma McKeon, Shayna Jack, Mollie O’Calloghan and Meg Harris secured gold.
While the quartet made their way out of the Paris Aquatic Centre, Ballard said, “Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up.” The clip of the comment soon went viral on social media forcing Eurosport to take a quick action.
“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” the broadcaster issued a statement. “To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”
Setting women’s sports back. Bob Ballard:
(video from:thelifeoflyds – TikTok) pic.twitter.com/6SABGUTpfc
— A Gooners View (@AGoonersThought) July 29, 2024
Ballard’s co-commentator Lizzie Simmonds described the comment as “outrageous”. However, Ballard is yet to comment on the issue. Ballard has an experience of four decades having covered swimming, diving, and water polo during his broadcasting career.
Following his comments, Ballard received severe backlash from netizens. “When will these people ever learn?” asked Loughborough University’s Professor Pragya Agarwal on X. “Why aren’t they being given some training?” Another fan wrote, “Bob Ballard hang your head in shame and get off the broadcast and back to the 1930s.”
