Sacked Eurosport commentator Bob Ballard sorry for sexist remark about swimmers

Bob Ballard, the veteran sports commentator sacked by Eurosport at the Olympics, has apologised for his sexist remark about Australian swimmers.

Ballard, who is gay and has previously described hearing homophobic remarks while covering sport, said it was not his “intention to upset or belittle anyone”. He had sparked ferocious attacks on social media after saying after the 4x100m freestyle relay that women like “hanging around doing their makeup”. Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon, Meg Harris and Shayna Jack had just beaten the US and China to claim gold when he made the remark.

His co-commentator and British swimming champion Lizzie Simmonds had immediately branded his remark “outrageous”, prompting laughter from Ballard. In his statement on X, Ballard urged users not to “pile in on” Simmons.

The stalwart of global sports coverage since the 1980s wrote: “The comments I made during the Australian freestyle relay victory ceremony on Saturday have caused some offence. It was never my intention to upset or belittle anyone and, if I did, I apologise. I am a massive advocate of women’s sport ... I shall miss the Eurosport team dearly and wish them all the best for the rest of the Olympics. No further comment will be issued.”

Professor Pragya Agarwal, a behavioural and data scientist, was among those to previously express dismay over his comments, posting: “When will these people ever learn? Why aren’t they being given some training?”

After the clip was shared widely, Eurosport moved quickly to remove Ballard from all remaining events at the Olympics.

“During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage last night, commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment,” a statement from the broadcaster said. “To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”

Ballard will be a familiar name to BBC 5Live and talkSPORT listeners, having previously reported for both radio channels. He covered swimming events across the opening day in Paris for Discovery+ and announced on social media that he would be poolside once again on Sunday, before being stood down.

Paris organisers had promoted the event as “The Equal Games”, and are said to have urged the broadcasters to avoid footage which might be perceived as objectifying women athletes. The IOC had celebrated the fact that women now make up 50 per cent of its participants.