Editor fired for ‘trio of fatties’ jibe
2016 Olympic Games bronze to Chinese Taipei on Sunday. The next day, QS commented: “The trio of fatties almost achieve an Olympic miracle.”
The headline drew wide spred condemnation on social media and a protest letter from Italian Archery Federation head Mario Scarzella. “Focusing on the looks of these women was really in poor taste,” Scarzella said.
“After crying all night over their defeat, this morning these women did not find the sympathy of the Italian press but also had to suffer this humiliation,” he charged, saying all Italian archery athletes were “up in arms”. – dpa ROME: The editor of an Italian sports newspaper was fired yesterday after running a headline that mocked three female Olympic athletes who missed out on a team archery bronze medal as a “trio of fatties.”
The head of Poligrafici Editoriale media group apologised in a public statement after the dailies Quotidiano Sportivo and Il Resto del Carlino published the offending article on Monday.
Andrea Riffeser Monti said the incident led him to “remove QS Editor Giuseppe Tassi from his position, with immediate effect”.
Guendalina Sartori, Lucilla Boari and Claudia Mandia lost their Rio
SHORTLY after Chad le Clos touched second in the Rio Olympic pool for his 200m freestyle silver medal, coach Graham Hill grimaced as if to say: “I told you so”.
Le Clos has cemented himself as one of the world’s best butterfly swimmers but was busy working on the freestyle project.
“Like I said last year, if I can get top five or six at worlds I know can win it the following year,” Le Clos said.
“It is what I thought would happen and I knew I could go 1:45 low, hopefully a 1:44 but I was beaten by a good man, absolutely.”
The pundits that poohpoohed Le Clos’s chances of a medal in the 200m freestyle missed all the hints, like when the Durban swimmer finished sixth in the event at last year’s Fina World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
Le Clos and Hill have proved they are not the type to experiment without reason.
“We’ll work on this when we get back and we’ll come back stronger in the 200m freestyle,” Le Clos said.
“It’s pretty cool to think I had a lot off doubters out there who didn’t expect that. I always believe and I always back myself.”
The 200m freestyle experiment showed signs of failure in Sunday’s semi-final when Le Clos shot out like a rocket covering the first 50m under world-record pace.
He subsequently finished in fifth place but still managed to book his place for Monday’s final, swimming in the outside lane. Le Clos employed the same tactic in the final, turning in under world-record pace over the first 50m, but this time there would be no fade as he got pipped to the wall by China’s Sun Yang.
Sun touched in 1:44.65 with Le Clos taking silver in a new continental record of 1:45.20, slashing 0.55s off Jean Basson’s seven-year-old record.
Adding the freestyle medal to the gold and silver he won in London 2012, Le Clos joined South Africa’s most decorated Olympians who include Penny Heyns, Roland Schoeman, and Charles Winslow.
“It is a huge honour, it is a gold and two silvers now, tomorrow hopefully if we can get another gold that would mean becoming the best Olympian the continent has ever had,” Le Clos said.
“So there is a lot riding on tomorrow night and I will not take anyone for granted.
“I got the silver and I’m obviously very happy with that, but it would obviously have been nice to win the gold.”
Asked afterwards whether they expected Le Clos to even get a sniff of a medal, Hill gave a short and sharp answer: “Yes, I thought he could win.”
Shortly before the start of the Olympics, Le Clos revealed both his parents were being treated for cancer.
His mother, Geraldine, had breast cancer which had returned since her remission in 2010, and had a double mastectomy, while father, Bert ,had developed prostate cancer.
Le Clos said his parents’ health problems weighed heavily on him in his build-up to the Games.