BBC Apologise After Major Blunder During Team GB Gold Win at Winter Olympics
A BBC commentator was forced to apologise after an on-air blunder during Matt Weston's gold-medal run at the Winter Olympics.
Weston and Tabby Stoecker starred with their combined performances to win gold in the mixed team skeleton relay event on the heels of Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale' triumph in the snowboard cross mixed team earlier on Sunday.
Stoecker went first and had given Weston a tough task with her run of 1:00.77, 0.18 seconds off the pace of the Germans, with the British pair the last to run.
The broadcast showed Weston waiting to go out to begin his attempt to clinch gold for Team GB.
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As he took off, however, it moved up to show his coach standing behind him.
The TV cameras cut away from Weston when he pushed off.
His 0.12-second reaction time showed on a graphic in the corner, with the Team GB coach taking up the main screen as he could be seen cheering him on.
It should be noted that the feed the BBC receives will have come from the official Olympic broadcast.
So, the BBC had no control what was being aired as commentator John Hunt made his feelings clear, hitting out at the pictures.
Hunt exclaimed: "Oh, what are they doing?
"What are they playing at?
"That’s terrible. That’s a great start. Sorry about the pictures but Matt is on his way."
Weston delivered a remarkable 58.59 seconds run to secure a gold medal with a final time of 1:59:36.
Speaking after becoming the first Brit to win two gold medals at a single edition of the Winter Olympics, he said: "Obviously the individual one has a special place in my heart, it's everything you dream about in the sport, but now we have had the introduction of the team race, this was another goal.
"I treated it like a five-heat race. I had things I wanted to clean up from the individual, I wanted to tick those boxes and be boring, get it done. Hopefully that would be enough and now we are here with two golds.
"The main thing for me is inspiration. Coming into this sport, I had no idea where it could take me. Now, nine years later, I'm double Olympic champion which is absolutely crazy. The main thing I want to get across is grab everything you can with two hands.
"Every opportunity that you have, you have no idea where it is going to take you. There are two of us stood here with gold medals around our necks and hopefully inspiring the next generation of skeleton sliders."
Topics: Olympics
Nasir Jabbar