What to Know
In an awkward hot mic moment, an Olympics broadcaster was caught calling the men’s snowboarding big air finals “boring.” But he can explain. The broadcaster, Todd Richards, is a former Olympic snowboarder himself. When he complained about the finals, he clearly thought he was off-air, but nope… everyone heard him.
Although the hot mic moment might seem embarrassing, Todd largely stands by what he said: the finals were kind of boring. Fair enough.
Todd was caught calling the finals less compelling than the qualifier.
When he thought his mic was off, he said, “That was boring. That was so boring. The qualifier was way more exciting.” No shade to the athletes though. He took to social media to clarify that while that round didn’t really hold his attention, it had nothing to do with the athletes who were competing. The finals were just missing some “drama.”
In the caption of a video shared to Instagram, he wrote, “This is nothing I wouldn’t say to a reporter or in public. It was my opinion based on what I saw in the qualifier vs the final medal round. Not one word I said had anything to do with a rider in this event. I feel like I shouldn’t have to say that, but I am. They all rule.”
@armishork @Peacock #WinterOlympics ♬ original sound – Austin Mishork
He went on to explain why he stands by his comment.
While it’s obviously not what Todd meant to say on air, he clarified that he really did mean what he said: he thought the qualifiers were better. Still, he thought gold medalist Kira Kimura’s performance was “unbelievable” and “rock solid all night long.” He thought it was pretty clear that his comment was not about the athletes themselves, but felt like he had to address the hot mic moment because of the number of messages he received immediately after the event.
“I did think the qualifiers were more exciting,” he said. “This had nothing to do with the athletes. It had everything to do with the drama that went down in the qualifiers.” He mentioned the “creative tricks” he witnessed during the qualifiers and compared that to the finals.
“In the final, a lot of people fell. And a lot of people truly did the same trick. It was a backside 1980 and a switch backside 1980 the entire time,” he said. “…It has nothing to do with what these athletes do because the riders come out here and they throw down. I have the utmost respect for them.” To him, the qualifier simply had “more excitement.”
Todd also apologized for it.
He obviously didn’t mean anything bad by what he said, but recognizing that the comment might’ve offended some people, he said he was sorry. “I apologize if anyone took that as I was calling out any of the riders here, because it truly wasn’t about that,” Todd continued. “These guys are my heroes. They are my friends. They are my colleagues and they are all rippers.”
Reacting to his apology on Instagram, one person wrote, “It’s all good, we all watched the same event & said the same thing.” On TikTok, some people said they saw nothing wrong with what Todd said. “I would actually appreciate this style of commentary,” someone else wrote after hearing Todd call the finals “so boring.” To many people who tuned in for the finals, Todd was just being honest.
