to think that some male presenters patronise female athletes

[MarathonMama]

... Stand up Chris Evans - he called Laura Trott "cute and sweet" and Dame Mary Peters "gorgeous". Gary Linekar said the boxing gold medallist, whose name escapes me, had a beautiful smile.

You wouldn't get Clare Balding saying Michel Phelps had rippling muscles, and not just because she wouldn't be interested anyway (iykwim)

And yesterday we had a thread abut slagging off looks on twitter.

Be pleasant and complimentary to people and you're a patronising twat.

I really think we should take all men off the telly, no lock them up and keep them away from society as a whole because someone will be offended.

Amazingly, being nice to people and about people - all people - gets you very far in life.

Courtesy and manners cost nothing.

Hmm. Not a fan of "cute and sweet" but "a beautiful smile" is a lovely compliment.

I've heard a male presenter call a male athlete "beautiful" this week too.

Overall, I think these Olympics have been very unsexist.

DH and I noticed this too. Gary Lineker is complete rubbish anyway, but his tip to the female boxer to 'keep smiling' was extremely patronising in our opinions.

Reminds me of being on the street and hearing 'give us a smile love'... ugh.

Yes yanbu. The importance being placed on how a woman looks is inescapable, even when it is so irrelevant like in this case.
My bf is a comedian and when comperes introduce men onto stage they talk about their talent. If its a female comedian they are more often than not described as 'the gorgeous...', being gorgeous has fa to do with being funny!
It is so patronising.

I dont find it patronising at all. Some people look for things to get uppity and offended by...

Have you not heard how 'cute and sweet' the presenters think Tom Daley is?

Thats different worra he's only a boy so women patronising him isn't patronising at all - it's being all motherly my arse it is

Not noticed anything particularly patronising. I don't mind being told I have a beautiful smile!

Who said Tom Daley was cute and sweet?

Give me the presenter's name and the approximate date/time.

Uppity and offended, i sound like a Mr Men character

Did someone call Tom Daley cute and sweet to his face? Urrrgh!

Nicola Adams (boxer) does have the most beautiful smile. It's one of those smiles that shows who she is inside as well as out. Made me feel a bit weepy when she won

I didn't see Gary Linekar's "keep smiling" but that could be a kind of mindset. You've just been beaten but get up again. But listening to an Irish commentator stumble not knowing how to describe Katie Taylor made me laugh. He called her a girl, then somebody said, well, she's 26 and so he corrected himself and said 'lady'. Another commentator suggested "woman?".

... so I understood why Lineker mentioned her smile (albeit a bit patronisingly, especially since she's 29 - I think-)

My FB feed appears to be covered in smut comments regarding Tom Daley by women of an age to know better including me quite graphically discussing that they didn't make them like that when they were 18, seeing as he's been on all morning, all wet and sultry looking. That little intro film he did for the mini docu, definitely a provocative and sexual toss of the head and lip licking.

There, only fair to spread the patronising around!

I'd mother him

My first reaction to Nicole Adams was her beautiful smile - both her dentition and exhuberance.

I agree that comments on smiles seem fair enough to me - there was a Chinese woman gymnast who had the most radiant smile throughout and it was wonderful to see her look as if she was having fun. And you couldn't not be uplifted by the knackered-but-happy smiles of the women rowers who got the first gold.

I do think there have been some more 'off' comments, like the 'girl-lady-woman' thing which sounds a bit daft, and so on. But to be honest, I think it's been outweighed by the fact so many female athletes are competing this year, that commentators have largely ended up talking about them as they would about men, and I've been enjoying that.

On the whole I think this Olympics has been pretty ok for not patronising female athletes, though the constant refering to women as girls is a bit grating. However, I was horrified to hear Jade Jones' coach say "she's as good as a man you know". To which my DH bellowed at the telly "she's better than a man - she's just won a gold medal!".

They are commentating live, having to randomly waffle to fill up air time.

Snooker and cricket, both slow moving sports, which are full of inane gibberish.

I can't remember what I was listening to on the radio but the male presenter turned to the female presenter and asked her opinion, there was a stunned silence and she said mumble mumble "I can't speak, I've got a hot sausage in my mouth" at which point the whole studio collapsed and none of them could manage to broadcast for three or four minutes. I think it was one of the canoe/kayak races.

My gripe was equestrian commentator Mike Tucker who referred to female competitors in the show jumping as "lady riders". He described Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum as "one of the best lady riders in the world". Showjumping is one of the very few sports where men and women compete against each other on equal terms and as Meredith M-S is a former European champion, member of the current reigning World Championship team and finished fourth in Beijing, I'd say that made her one of the best riders on the world, full stop.

I was watching Nicola Adams being interviewed by Gary Richardson this morning and she really does have the most fabulous smile that lights up her whole face. She's really fantastic achieving what she had done, I would love to see her make some serious money endorsing stuff.

Gary Lineker is an arse of an Interviewer regardless who he's talking to imo.

Gary Linekar has been crap. He should stick to presenting the football.

Aaaw, lay off Dorian Gray Gary Lineker

Just goes to show how unused they are to commentating on women's sports.

Presenting Knob of the Olympiad Award has to go to Sharron Davies and her interview with Rebecca Adlington.

Silver would go to Jill Douglas over the Pendleton disqualification interview

Closely followed by Claire Balding who doesn't really care much about anything unless it's got a leg on each corner, shits a lot and eats hay.

The Lovely Sue Barker just simpers and needs a bloody good slap