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Mikaela Shiffrin sits disconsolately on the side of the course after failing to finish her slalom first run. Photo: Xinhua

Winter Olympics: viewers slam NBC over Mikaela Shiffrin commentary, drawing parallels with gymnast Simone Biles amid concerns about athletes’ mental health

  • ‘What a mistake. What a disappointment. This will live in infamy for the rest of time,’ NBC announcers reportedly said after favourite Shiffrin failed to finish her slalom run
  • Four-time Olympic gold medallist Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Games gymnastics team event citing pressure

US broadcaster NBC has come under fire for what many viewers believed was insensitive commentary after American skier and gold medal favourite Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish her first slalom run at the Beijing Winter Olympics – drawing parallels with the mental health problems suffered by gymnast Simone Biles at the Tokyo Games.

“What a mistake. What a disappointment. This will live in infamy for the rest of time,” an announcer reportedly said after two-time Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champion abandoned her run on Wednesday. She missed a gate and then sat by the side of the slope holding back tears and head in her arms as the NBC cameras zoomed in.

“I don’t know, shaming people just because they didn’t perform well at the Olympics feels like the opposite of why we supposedly have the Olympics in the first place,” Charlotte Clymer, a writer with 378,000 followers on Twitter, wrote.

Verified Twitter user Ashley Green, listed as a photographer, wrote: “I am so-so sad for Mikaela Shiffrin. All I can think of is Simone Biles over the summer. The pressure on these athletes is insane.”

Another wrote: “We have literally not moved the needle on mental health at all.”

Biles, a four-time Olympic gold medallist, was a raging favourite ahead of the Tokyo Games last year. However, she stunned the world by withdrawing from the team competition citing the pressure placed on her by the media to perform. Her statement “we’re human too” became a slogan for raising awareness of mental health awareness for high-profile athletes.

Gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the Tokyo Games team competition citing mental health issues. Photo: AP

“We have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do,” Biles said at the time.

A tearful Mikaela Shiffrin, one of the first athletes to come to Biles’ defence last year, later questioned whether she could pick herself up and return to competition after failing to finish for the second race in a row.

The 26-year-old American, who has dominated the technical events in recent years, was eliminated after missing an early gate. She also crashed out on the first run of the giant slalom on Monday after coming into the race as the defending Olympic champion.

Shiffrin sat slumped by the side of the course with her head in her hands after her aborted run, and choked back tears while trying to come to terms with what had happened.

“Yeah. I mean, no,” she said in response to a question on whether she would continue to compete at these Olympics. “I will try to reset again. Maybe try to reset better this time. But I also don’t know how to do it better because … I just don’t. I’ve never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.”

The next two races in the women’s individual alpine programme are the super-G on Friday followed by the downhill on Tuesday. The individual programme ends with the alpine combined race on February 17.

“The hill on the speed track looks pretty incredible and I think it would be a pleasure to ski. But I also have some teammates who are really fast. And we have the athletes who can fill the spaces,” Shiffrin said. “So if I’m going to ski out on the fifth gate, like what’s the point?”

Shiffrin said her two performances had left her feeling like she had let everybody down. “It’s not the end of the world and it’s so stupid to care this much, but I feel like I have to question a lot now,” she said. “I feel a lot of disappointment.

“I feel like my performance is a huge letdown. It’s a letdown of everything. It’s letting down myself, letting down other people.”

Mikaela Shiffrin sits alone gathering her thoughts after skiing off the course at the Winter Olympics. Photo: AP

She also lamented the waste of all the effort and preparation she had put in ahead of the Games.

“We came all this way and we’re not done yet. GS [giant slalom] and slalom were my biggest focuses, so it really feels like a lot of work for nothing,” she said.

“They’ll try to say, ‘This happens, it’s OK, don’t be too hard on yourself,’ but it is a lot of work for a grand total of five gates in the GS and five gates in the slalom. That’s not lost on me.”

Mikaela Shiffrin is consoled after failing to finish her run at the Beijing Games. Photo: AP

Shiffrin’s emotions spilled over when she was asked about other tragic moments in her life. The skier lost her father in an accident in 2020 and took a break from skiing to come to terms with his death.

“It does give me perspective but right now I would really like to call him,” she said. “So that doesn’t make it easier and he would probably tell me to just get over it. But he’s not here to say that so on top of everything else I’m pretty angry at him too.

“At the end of the day you can let it go and say that’s not the worst thing that I ever experienced in life. As hard as it is right now, it’s not comparable to some of the worst things that I’ve experienced.

American Mikaela Shiffrin just before missing a gate during her slalom run at the Winter Olympics. Photo: AP

“If the worst thing that happens is this … that I didn’t finish in the Olympics … that hurts, but in 24 hours, nobody’s … well maybe nobody’s … going to care. Maybe it’ll take a little longer, but I don’t know. We’ll see.”

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