A BBC host was corrected live on air when he repeatedly used the wrong pronouns to welcome American shot putter Raven Saunders at the Paris Olympics 2024.
Raven Saunders, 28, identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns “they/them.” On Thursday, they appeared on field for the qualifying round in the women’s shot put at the Paris Olympics. Saunders, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, wore a mask obscuring their face, with hair dyed green and purple to match their Hulk alter-ego.
BBC Olympics commentator Steve Backley repeatedly misgendered Saunders as “her” during the coverage of Thursday’s women’s shot put qualifying in the Stade de France, Paris, reported Deadline.
“The colorful character of Raven Saunders back. Good to see her back, sort of. Sort of see her, I mean,” Backley said, referring to Saunders’s mask which obscured most of their face.
Backley’s co-host Jazmin Sawyers corrected him live on air for misgendering the American non-binary athlete.
“Well we can’t see them very well. Raven Saunders is actually non-binary and wearing the mask there, we’re quite used to seeing them with interesting attire,” Sawyers replied.
A contentious issue
The moment went viral on social media, sparking a massive debate on gender identity at the Paris Olympics.
A section of the internet questioned why a non-binary athlete was competing in a women’s sport.
{{/usCountry}}A section of the internet questioned why a non-binary athlete was competing in a women’s sport.
{{/usCountry}}“More gender madness at the Olympics in the women’s shot put… If they’re not a woman, why are they in the women’s competition?” asked X user James Esses. His post has racked up a staggering 6.3 million views on X.
“I'm ok with them identifying as non-binary and competing as a woman, as long as they are genetically a woman,” another countered.
This incident comes shortly after Algerian boxer Imane Khelif found herself in the centre of the gender row controversy following her match with Angela Carini from Italy. Khelif was disqualified from last year's world championships after failing gender eligibility tests, but cleared to feature in the boxing events at the Paris Games 2024.