World Figure Skating Championships in Montpellier
Scandal in the live stream: commentator calls Canadian athlete “slut”
Canadian figure skating pair Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
© Picture Alliance
Scandal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montpellier: Two commentators described Canadian Meagan Duhamel as a “slut”. The world association has already reacted.
Meagan Duhamel is one of the most successful figure skaters in her country. During her active career, the Canadian became world champion twice and Olympic champion once in pair skating.
Duhamel is not taking part as an active athlete at the World Figure Skating Championships, which have been taking place in Montpellier, France since Monday – but she was the focus of a scandal: the two commentators Simon Reed, 74, and Nicky Slater, 63, had the 36-year-old in the live Stream of the World Cup audibly referred to as “Bitch from Canada”. Duhamel is part of the coaching team for the silver medal-winning Japanese skating duo Riku Miura / Ryūichi Kihara at the tournament.
The world figure skating association ISU reacted immediately and separated from the two commentators with immediate effect. “The ISU strongly condemns discriminatory statements. We are shocked by their language,” the association said in a statement. The journalists would never be used again at ISU events.
The dialogue between the two can be clearly heard on the video:
“Well, we’ll see if she liked it when she tweets.”
“Don’t worry about her.”
“We didn’t mention her by name. I nearly did. We didn’t mention her as one of the coaches.” “The bitch from Canada.”
Meagan Duhamel is forgiving
A dirty laugh follows. The fact that the two were not aware that the microphone was still on cannot be an excuse: such old man sayings are also unacceptable off the screen.
After all: As Simon Reed announced on Twitter, he has already apologized to the Canadian. And Meagan Duhamel, all athlete, accepted. In a Twitter statement, she wrote: “I have received personal apologies from Simon Reed and the ISU President and I don’t think a public apology is necessary at this time. I appreciate and respect their apologies.”