Presenter caught out in awkward hot mic moment during live Olympic coverage
Following Friday (6 February) night’s opening ceremony, the Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games are truly in full swing.
And with scandals before it even began, it’s not been without its dull moments.
One presenter who would agree with that appeared to make a bit of a controversial comment about one of the sports on Saturday.
A former professional snowboarder himself, Todd Richards, was broadcasting for the US' NBC during the men’s snowboarding big air finals when he seemed to be caught in a rather awkward hot mic moment.
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The ex-Olympian was marking his sixth Winter Olympics as a commentator when he referred to the finals as being ‘so boring’. And he’s since shared a video to explain what happened as he thought he was off-air.
During the event, Japan scooped up gold and silver with Kira Kimura and Ryoma Kimata respectively, while the defending gold medallist, Su Yiming of China, picked up bronze.
A 17-year-old high schooler from the US, Ollie Martin, just missed out in fourth place as the USA team is yet to win its first medal this year.
But it appears Richards wasn’t impressed either way as he was heard saying the event ‘was boring’.
“That was so boring,” the presenter continued. “The qualifier was way more exciting.”
Social media users were quick to call it out as some claimed his comments were just because Team USA had not placed as another put: “And Todd Richards had the nerve to say this was boring.”
“Hot-mic gold,” a second said as many just put: “LMFAO.”
However, plenty do seem to agree with him as one wrote: “It's because the event was boring. Snowboarders don't give a f**k what country they come from. Todd Richards is the most respected voice in snowboarding. He doesn't have a US allegiance. He is a snowboarder first and foremost. Look on IG all the riders agree.”
And Richards has doubled-down on his comments as he took to Instagram after being made aware of the hot-mic moment.
The icon of the sport first congratulated the winners before addressing the ‘elephant in the room’.
“I did think the qualifiers were more exciting,” he said, backing his ‘boring’ comment. “This had nothing to do with the athletes, it had everything to do with the drama that went down in the qualifiers.”
He referenced surprises and ‘creative tricks’ during that stage before in the final when ‘a lot of people fell’.
“And a lot of people truly did the same trick,” he continued.
“It has nothing to do with what these athletes do because the riders come out here and they throw down and I have the utmost respect for them.
“It really just leant itself to the format and I thought the qualifier had a lot more excitement. So I apologise if anyone took that as I was calling out any of the riders here because it truly wasn’t about that – these guys are my heroes. They are my friends, they are my colleagues, and they are all rippers.”
Topics: Social Media, Sport, Winter Olympics, Instagram
Jess Battison