'Died like a pig': Outrage at Rio pundit’s remark about 14yo Chinese swimmer (VIDEO)
A Canadian sports commentator is facing a tsunami of outrage over his “nasty” and “humiliating” comments in which he said a young Chinese athlete “died like a pig” during an Olympic event.
Byron MacDonald’s analysis of 14-year-old Ai Yanhan’s fourth place finish at the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay has outraged viewers of CBC’s live Olympic coverage on Wednesday.
CBC's #ByronMacDonald declares 14-yr-old #CHN swimmer 'died like a pig' after her 200m freestyle SF at #Rio2016https://t.co/IB8oarBI0j
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 11, 2016
Many called for the 66-year-old former swimmer to be fired for his “disgusting” public insult directed at the Chinese competitor.
"Went out like stink, died like a pig." That bit of broadcasting regarding the Chinese swimmer really didn't work @CBCOlympics.
— Ken Lima-Coelho (@KennyVLimaC) August 11, 2016
After Yanhan and her teammates missed out on a podium spot to Team Canada, MacDonald remarked that the teenager had “dropped the ball” before following up with a bizarre and needless barb.
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“That little 14-year-old from China dropped the ball, baby. Too excited, went out like a stink and died like a pig,” MacDonald said.
An apology from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Twitter and MacDonald’s co-commentator has not quelled disgust across social media.
@KennyVLimaC We apologize the comment on a swim performance made it to air. It was an unfortunate choice of words - we're sorry it happened
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 11, 2016
Many sports fans are demanding a personal apology and the dismissal of the man who ranked sixth in the 1972 men’s 100m butterfly event.
@CBCOlympics@cbcsports Byron MacDonald should be fired for his comments regarding China's Women 4x200M performance.
— Bryon Petti (@BryonPetti) August 11, 2016
@CBCOlympics Byron Macdonald, he must apologize and step down, immediately! I feel so sad that Olympics turn people evil instead of stronger
— Ya Zhou (@YaZhou1989) August 11, 2016
NASTIEST commentator ever. Please brush your teeth before going to work. https://t.co/nu420qpDA3#ByronMacDonald@CBC@CBCOlympics@UofT
— Serene Guan (@Serene_Guan) August 11, 2016
@CBCOlympics spirits of olympics are to show insults? #ByronMacDonald show your decent respect and step down from your position#CBCOlympics
— cath (@cathchub) August 11, 2016
@CBCOlympics more important we want to hear apology from Byron MacDonald and how he get punished from this incident.
— woody wu (@animatorwoody) August 11, 2016
Very Un-Canadian comments Byron Macdonald. Very cheesy that Scott Russell had to apologize for your classless comments. Man up.
— Shelly Wiens (@wiens_shelly) August 11, 2016
A CBC statement later released to the National Post read: “To be clear, Byron’s comments were related to the swimmer’s performance, not to her as an individual. That said, they were inappropriate and an unfortunate choice of words and Byron is very sorry for what he said.”
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