Winter Olympics: viewers slam NBC over Mikaela Shiffrin commentary, drawing parallels with gymnast Simone Biles amid concerns about athletes’ mental health
- ‘What a mistake. What a disappointment. This will live in infamy for the rest of time,’ NBC announcers reportedly said after favourite Shiffrin failed to finish her slalom run
- Four-time Olympic gold medallist Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Games gymnastics team event citing pressure
US broadcaster NBC has come under fire for what many viewers believed was insensitive commentary after American skier and gold medal favourite Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish her first slalom run at the Beijing Winter Olympics – drawing parallels with the mental health problems suffered by gymnast Simone Biles at the Tokyo Games.
“What a mistake. What a disappointment. This will live in infamy for the rest of time,” an announcer reportedly said after two-time Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champion abandoned her run on Wednesday. She missed a gate and then sat by the side of the slope holding back tears and head in her arms as the NBC cameras zoomed in.
“I don’t know, shaming people just because they didn’t perform well at the Olympics feels like the opposite of why we supposedly have the Olympics in the first place,” Charlotte Clymer, a writer with 378,000 followers on Twitter, wrote.
Verified Twitter user Ashley Green, listed as a photographer, wrote: “I am so-so sad for Mikaela Shiffrin. All I can think of is Simone Biles over the summer. The pressure on these athletes is insane.”
Another wrote: “We have literally not moved the needle on mental health at all.”
