The 2024 Paris Olympic broadcaster Eurosport has removed commentator Bob Ballard from its team after he made a sexist remark about Australia’s female swimmers.
Following the Australian women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team’s incredible gold medal victory on Saturday evening, Ballard said: “Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their makeup.”
Immediately after he made the comment, his co-commentator Lizzie Simmonds called him out, saying the remark was “outrageous”.
As a result of Ballard’s “inappropriate comment”, Eurosport released a statement on the incident, confirming he was removed from the commentary roster because of it.
“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment. To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect,” the statement reads.
Ballard has yet to publicly comment on his remark. He’s been working in media for more than four decades, covering swimming, diving and water polo.
Adding to Ballard’s cringeworthy statement, Paris organisers have been promoting this year’s Olympics as “The Equal Games”, as women now make up 50 per cent of participating athletes.
Amid the sexist incident, Australia is celebrating an extraordinary performance by the powerhouse relay team, made up of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris.
Their victory led to Australia’s fourth consecutive gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay event, in a time of 3 minutes and 28.92 seconds. It was also McKeon’s sixth gold medal, making her the country’s most decorated Olympian ever.
Sharing her excitement over the win on social media, McKeon wrote on Instagram: “History with these incredible women. I will always cherish these moments. Proud to be Australian. Thank you all.”
The final results of this nail biting race saw the Australian team beat out the United States by seconds, with the American’s taking the silver medal in a national record time of 3 minutes and 30.20 seconds. China followed closely behind with a time of 3 minutes and 30.30 seconds to take the bronze medal.