sport news BBC commentators are slammed for misgendering the first openly non-binary ...

sport news BBC commentators are slammed for misgendering the first openly non-binary ...
sport news BBC commentators are slammed for misgendering the first openly non-binary ...

Two of the BBC's Olympic commentary team have been slammed for repeatedly misgendering the first openly non-binary athlete to compete at the games.

Team USA star Alana Smith, who uses they/them pronouns was knocked out of the Women's Street Skateboarding semi-finals after failing to score three tricks at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. 

Despite the Arizonian  20-year-old wearing a 'pronoun pin' and having 'they/them' written twice on their skateboard, they were repeatedly referred to as 'she' and 'her' by the BBC's Ed Leigh and Marc Churchill.

Many skateboarding fans noticed the error, and took to Twitter to complain, with one writing: 'Alana Smith literally had their pronouns on their skateboard and the BBC  commentators still misgendered them, is is that hard?'.  

Team USA star Alana Smith, who uses they/them pronouns was knocked out of the Women's Street Skateboarding semi-finals after failing to score three tricks at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo

Team USA star Alana Smith, who uses they/them pronouns was knocked out of the Women's Street Skateboarding semi-finals after failing to score three tricks at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo

Despite the Arizonian 20-year-old wearing a 'pronoun pin' and having 'they/them' written twice on their skateboard, they were repeatedly referred to as 'she' and 'her' by the BBC's Ed Leigh and Marc Churchill

Despite the Arizonian 20-year-old wearing a 'pronoun pin' and having 'they/them' written twice on their skateboard, they were repeatedly referred to as 'she' and 'her' by the BBC's Ed Leigh and Marc Churchill

'I find this quite hard to watch, in Poe Pinson, you had a really great skate who she was fighting for an Olympic place against. Alana Smith is a great skater but she's got no comp results from the last year,' commentator Marc Churchill, himself a professional skateboarder,  said.

'And she could potentially have focused on park. To come out here and Ollie [a skateboarding trick where the rider and board leap into the air without the use of the rider's hands] a course.... maybe she's carrying an injury,' he added.

'It's  getting away from her again. She's gonna throw it. She certainly isn't approaching the course gingerly,' Ed Leigh, the BBC's snowboarding correspondent added.

BBC source told FEMAIL the presenters made an 'honest mistake' as 'errors occur with a live broadcast'.

The BBC's Marc Churchill - who is a professional skateboarder - referred to Alana as 'she'

The BBC's Marc Churchill - who is a professional skateboarder - referred to Alana as 'she' 

The BBC's snowboarding correspondent Ed Leigh (left) also frequently referred to Alana as 'she'

The BBC's snowboarding correspondent Ed Leigh (left) also frequently referred to Alana as 'she'

Dozens of fans tweeted complaining about the presenters using

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