What a pair of male a***holes from the BBC again

[uneffingbelievable]

The Male British commentator on the womens coxless four at the PAris Olympics - has completely and utterly blamed the fact they got silver not gold, on the fact that there is a 38 yr old woman, mother of 3 in the boat. He said her ability to push and her endurance has gone down because of her age and that is the reason they lost, she was being carried by them - WTAF.

They lost by 0.18 of a second to the Dutch

They should be ashamed of what they just said. She got seat raced to get her place and she made it. What an odious pair of men

I need to hear it for myself.
Do you have a link?
What did he say about her being a mother?

Commentators say similar stuff all the time about older sportspeople. As do sportspeople

There were a number of mothers in the races. Most were mentioned. I see/saw nothing wrong with anything that was said.

I've heard similar comments about male competitor's who are older than some of the people they are competing against. Pretty sure I heard it when listening to the swimming and gymnastics. Would have to hear the bit about being a mother. .

I agree with the above posters... This isn't gender specific. You hear it regularly in football matches with the older players, how established,m how at 40 they're past it and need to retire because they can't keep up with the younger ones.

Honestly, I think they're right. I'm 40 and I groan getting out of a chair, don't build muscle as quickly, lose fat slower... I think a younger sportsperson (gender-neutral term, woo!) should have the spot.

I heard both commentators describing how excited her children would be. Definitely didn't hear criticism of motherhood marring her performance. Isn't it the case that it can improve some types of performance?

Age obviously can have an effect. Elite sportspeople at their peak are usually younger than 38.

Hmm. She will have earned her place - they didn't pluck some random mum from an aisle in Tesco and plonk her in the Olympics!

Did he specifically say he’s anything to do with her being a mother of 3 or are toy adding that?

38 is older for an athlete, most are starting to lose stamina at that point so saying her endurance had gone down due to age, compared to previous performances could be a fair comment.

If you go looking for offence you'll always find it. Commentators and pundits were saying the same about Ronaldo at the Euros. It's just a fact that athletes will get less capable of feats of strength, stamina and endurance in their late 30s.

We need a link before we can match your outrage

I'm 40 and I groan getting out of a chair

From experience, it's even worse when the chair starts groaning too.

The female commentator just referred to Helen Glover as 'Supermum'. It's very tiresome but it's not exclusively men who say such things.
Being older almost certainly does impact on performance too.

I only ever seem to hear motherhood mentioned with reference to athletes,9 in awe.

38 is old as an athlete, she will be past her peak, but if there was someone better, she wouldn't be there.

Andy Murray's age and family are mentioned in every piece about him.

Andy Murray being old is mentioned every single time he plays, along with how it's amazing he gets there

Lots of the swimmers were "they might have one games left but they are getting old"

The commentators always are at least one person familiar with the sport who therefore is aware of the demands on the body etc required

I listened to that and it didn’t grab me as ageist at the time.

I think we should accept there are age and sex differences in performance, especially at this level.

There are also comments about young athletes. Again, age matters. Maybe they have stamina but not mental strength etc etc.

Unless very outrageous I’d give this comment a pass. Otherwise we’ll just have some images and an impersonal AI voiceover that says nothing.

What the OP claims is absolutely not what was said.

Hi OP

I think you should come back and add to your first post. People have responded in good faith to the thread you've created.

Also, who are the “pair”’of male arseholes? Commentary for the rowing is a man and a woman, both of whom are very experienced rowing athletes and know what they’re talking about. It’s not like saying a CEO is past it because she’s hit 40 - theirs is a biological truth about when we physically peak, no matter our level.

I think you do women and feminism a disservice when you falsely claim sexism.

Bit like crying wolf.

I think you owe the commentators an apology.

I also think you've wasted my time. Won't bother next time.

That's the nature of commenting though, to analyse performance. They were critical of the French goalkeeper earlier, in the Men's hockey. I expect the sportsperson in question is already well aware of her strengths and shortcomings.

I watched the race and don’t remember hearing this or anything derogatory or sexist. They did keep going on about the female rowers being Mums which I thought at first was a bit annoying. But commentators have also gone on a lot about Tom Daley and Adam Peaty being Dads so no different really?!

They said about a male rower he was a watchmaker. I think he was Swiss. They were just being chatty, with some time to fill.

I think it's fair enough to comment on someone's age in the context of elite sporting performance, they do this with the men too.

If they were implying that it's being a mum which has negatively affected her performance, that's a bit off. I'd be pointing out that the 2 Kiwis who won the double sculls about an hour earlier are both mothers. But as PPs have pointed out, it is mentioned with regard to the men too – much has been made of Tom Daley coming out of retirement because his son said he wanted to see his father in action at an Olympic Games.

Elite sport is one of the few professions where it is undeniable that you are less good after a certain age, because of the physical demands of world class sport. The age of older athletes is mentioned all the time - Mark Cavendish, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Tom Daley (by him, not that old but he has been competing for 20 years and comments on the toll that has taken on his body).

I can’t get worked up that someone thinks older people have less energy.