NBC’s reporting on Mikaela Shiffrin’s second straight skiing disqualification at the Beijing Winter Olympics has some fans comparing the coverage to Simone Biles’ struggles at the Summer Olympics. And not in a good way.
Shiffrin missed a gate early in the slalom Wednesday and left the course, disqualified in a second event.
NBC’s coverage included a camera focused on Shiffrin’s forlorn figure sitting on the slope. She then gave a tearful soul-baring interview in which she said her mishap in the slalom, after falling in the giant slalom two days earlier, “makes me second-guess the last 15 years. ... Just processing a lot for sure and I feel really bad.”
Commentators spoke about her disappointment as one of the sport’s all-time greats — and an Olympic gold medalist in slalom and giant slalom. That also irked fans.
Many viewers compared the coverage with the network’s treatment of Biles, a defending gold medalist in gymnastics who came under intense focus at the Tokyo Olympics as she shared her mental health struggles and dropped out of events.
