A former BBC Radio Sheffield presenter has been dropped from Eurosport’s Olympics coverage team over an “inappropriate” joke he made about the Australian 4x100m relay team.
Bob Ballard spent five years at Radio Sheffield before joining the 5 Live sports team in 1997, where he served as the BBC’s main swimming commentator. Following the Australian women’s team’s gold in Paris yesterday, he told co-host, former Olympian and European backstroke champion Lizzie Simmonds that the athletes, who were celebrating together, were late to leave the venue because “you know what women are like, hanging around, doing their makeup.”
Simmonds immediately pulled Ballard up on his remark, saying: “Outrageous, Bob. Some of the men are doing that as well.”
The clip swiftly spread on social media last night:
Today, Warner Bros Discovery-owned Eurosport issued a statement saying: “During a segment of Eurosport’s coverage [Sunday], commentator Bob Ballard made an inappropriate comment. To that end, he has been removed from our commentary roster with immediate effect.”
Ballard this afternoon apologised, and wished his former teammates the best for the rest of the games, via X (Twitter):
Not everyone has been so hard on the host, who has himself spoken of the discrimination he faced as a gay man at the BBC in the nineties. Ballard’s colleagues at 365 Radio were quick to jump to his defences
While others felt the sacking was an overreaction:
Others called for perspective given the controversial list of competitors at this year’s event, including one convicted child rapist in the Dutch beach volleyball team:
As social media continues to split into sides on the debate, Ballard has made a final post-sacking plea for users not to “pile in” on co-host Simmonds:
