Italian RAI commentators Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Matzucchi have been suspended from the 2023 FINA World Championships for making sexist and racist jokes about athletes, Repubblica reports.
While broadcasting the diving competition, Leonarduzzi, comparing the heights of Italian and Dutch athletes, said that “in bed they are all the same height”, and also indulged in comments with sexual allusions to British Yasmine Harper.
Additionally, the commentator misrepresented Italian athlete Riccardo Giovannini’s name, calling him with a “Liccardo” accent. According to Leonarduzzi, the athlete “who would be called in China”.
RAI executive director Roberto Sergio said the channel had launched a disciplinary dispute procedure and also removed Leonarduzzi and Mazucchi from work at the tournament, which is being held in Fukuoka, Japan.
“A public service journalist cannot justify himself by calling what was said on the show a ‘bar joke’. I have instructed the responsible authorities to initiate disciplinary proceedings and have asked the Rai Sport director Jacopo Volpi to immediately fire the commentator from Japan, Sergio said in a statement.
The FINA World Championships started on July 14 in Fukuoka and will end on July 30.
The Republic
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
