fOr maybe they thought they were joking and that those sentences thrown there made their listeners laugh too: “The Dutch are big” but «In bed they are all the same height”but there’s even worse. But that wasn’t the case, at least not for everyone, and for the commentators of the women’s synchronized trampoline final at the Fukuoka World CupLorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi, the complaint has started on public TV who is already handling the case.
Sexist comments at the swimming world championships
Sexist, racist and body shaming comments, there is enough of everything in the sentences of the two: «This one is called Harper, she is a harp player. How to play the harp? Do you…Do you touch it? You pluck it »and again« The advantage of men is that they have to study seven notes, women are only three, Si La Do ». Phrases said jokingly, but which were not tolerated, not only by the listeners, but also by Rai.
The two commentators were suspended
And in fact, the heads of public TV initiated a disciplinary dispute procedure against the Rai Sport journalist Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and all the necessary measures for the technical collaborator Massimiliano Mazzucchi. “A Public Service reporter he cannot justify himself by relegating himself to a “bar joke” what went on the air» declared the CEO Roberto Sergio and from tomorrow, informs Rai, «the commentary of the World Swimming Championships, diving category, will be edited by Nicola Sangiorgio».
Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi suspended for sexist comments during the commentary of the diving final at the Fukuoka World Championships (Getty Images)
The defense: «Just a bar joke»
Leonarduzzi he defends himself against the accusations on the phrase “Si, la, do” explaining that he had only said «a bar joke to my commentator during the tiggì break, which he shouldn’t have heard from our microphone, but without my knowledge the RaiPlay microphone was not closed and I I had thrown down the headset because after hours of direct there was the tiggì ».
But there is also racism
Sexist ones are not the only sentences Leonarduzzi contested: what was said during the final of the men’s synchronized elimination on the trampoline was not really liked either, namely: «Licaldo, the Chinese would say Licaldo» distorting the pronunciation of the «R» of Riccardo Giovannini’s name, tracing the typical racist stereotype on the Chinese language.
On the sexist comments, the commentator: “Just a fuss”
For the commentator, however, are senseless accusations and therefore he apologizes to viewers, but only because the microphones were open and they shouldn’t have heard a “joke” called off record. Leonarduzzi, on the other hand, distances himself “from what happened and from the accusations of sexism”, adding that as regards the words of the large build of the Dutch athletes “I also do it for men when they have a large and well-structured physique” and therefore “It’s just a fuss building up».
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