A local sports anchor in Texas angered the Olympic figure skating community when he suggested that the event was “not a sport.”
Fox-4 Dallas’ reporter Edward Egros made the statement via Twitter on Monday as skaters were competing in this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Egros claimed in a follow-up tweet that figure skating was “too subjective” to “have quantifiable metrics that determine a winner” and so was “an art form.”
“Still, figure skating is really hard,” he added.
Egros’ comments did not go over well with Winter Olympians, past and present.
Vincent Zhou, who at 17-years-old is Team USA’s youngest Olympian competing in this year’s games, told Egros to “stick to reporting on ‘real sports,’ do your job, and we’ll do ours.”
Zhou’s teammate Chris Knierim agreed:
Gracie Gold ― who helped Team USA score a bronze medal in the team skating event at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia ― also waded in on the debate:
Retired Canadian figure skater Jeffrey Buttle, who nabbed bronze in the individual men’s event at the 2006 Turin games in Italy, also clapped back.
Egros appeared unfazed by the attention, however, and stuck to his guns:
