Canadian figure skater Megan Duhamel was inadvertently put at the center of controversy over the hurtful words of a British commentator during the figure skating world championships on Wednesday.
Simon Reed, who thought her microphone was off, described her in derogatory terms, calling her “Canada of Canada.” The man in question and his co-star, Nikki Slater, were also going to laugh after the statement, at the end of the short program between the pairs. Furthermore, Reuters has specified that staff working for British television have been replaced, as required by the International Skating Union (ISU).
“Harassment, misuse of language or statements, and behavior of this kind have no place in sport and our society,” the unit said in a statement. The ISU made an immediate decision with its service provider to suspend commenters immediately. None of them will cover any future ISU figure skating events.”
Excuses
On Thursday, Duhamel spoke on her Twitter account, saying she had been contacted by Reed and head of the Internet Services Unit Jan Dijkima.
“Twitter, I hope we all enjoyed some great skating. I received an apology from Simon Reed and the head of the ISU. I don’t think public acknowledgment of remorse is necessary at this point. I appreciate and respect their apologies,” she wrote.
Duhamel won two world titles alongside fellow countryman Eric Radford before retiring from competition in 2018. After that, she participated in the show tours, including “Stars on Ice”.
The World Championships takes place this week in Montpellier, France. On Thursday, Radford and partner Vanessa James won the bronze medal in pairs after an impressive free skating. Fifth on Wednesday, the Canadian pair posted the second highest score of the day at 130.78 points, which allowed them to move up the rankings.
Thus, Radford and James (197.32) overtook the Georgian duo to take first place in the final standings behind Japan’s Riko Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (199.55). Americans Alexa Knirim and Brandon Frazier managed to pass the competition and took the gold medal 221.09.
Ontarians Evelyn Walsh and Trinant Michaud ranked sixth.
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