A British Olympics swimming commentator has been sacked with immediate effect by broadcaster Eurosport, after coming in for a barrage of criticism for a sexist comment directed at Australia’s women’s freestyle relay team.
Bob Ballard, who has commentated at seven Olympic Games across a wide array of sports, was calling for Eurosport Emma McKeon, Shayna Jack, Mollie O’Callaghan and Meg Harris won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay event for Australia for the fourth consecutive time.
Ballard made the fateful quip as the team left the Paris Aquatic Centre following the race and medal ceremony.
“Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their makeup,” he said.
The incident prompted Ballard’s co-commentator Lizzie Simmonds, who represented Great Britain in backstroke in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, to slam his remark as ‘outrageous’.
It didn’t take long for Eurosport to take decisive action, removing Ballard from its coverage of the heats on Sunday evening (AEST), with the network confirming he has been permanently axed.
“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” a statement from the network reads, accoding to The Independent. “
To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”
Social media reaction to the comment and the sacking has been mixed, with some telling Ballard to ‘hang [his] head in shame’, while others said the termination was over-the-top and slammed the network for being ‘humourless bastards’.
O’Callaghan, Jack, McKeon and Harris set a new Olympic record with their gold medal-winning time of 3:28.92, with Team USA finishing more than a second behind and China claiming the bronze medal.
Ballard is yet to make public comment on his sacking.
The incident hearkens back to when tennis commentator Doug Adler was sacked by ESPN for an alleged racist remark at tennis star Venus Williams during the 2017 Australian Open, when he described her charging to the net against opponent Stefanie Vogele as ‘the gorilla effect’.
However, Adler claimed he was actually referring to ‘guerrilla’ tactics rather than making a deliberately racist comment, and later sued the network.