Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty
Sports announcers have one job, to commentate what is going on, without sticking their foot in their mouth. NBC gymnastics announcer, Al Trautwig was slammed by adoption advocates after he made inaccurate comments about Simone Biles‘ parents.
When discussing the background of the USA gymnastics team, Trautwig kept referring to Biles’ parents as her grandparents. Ron and Nellie Biles are in fact Simone and her sister Adria’s biological grandparents, but they adopted the girls back in 2001.
Adoption advocates reached out to Trautwig on Twitter to clarify that Ron and Nellie Biles are Simone’s parents. Trautwig, responded in a now deleted tweet stating, “They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents.” A user screen captured the now deleted tweet.
Simone’s coach also tweeted at Trautwig, clarifying his previous statements.
Shortly after, NBC Sports issued a statement from Trautwig saying, “I regret that I wasn’t more clear in my wording on the air.” He continued, “I compounded the error on Twitter, which I quickly corrected. To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone’s parents.”
Tonight, team USA will defend their gold in the women’s gymnastics team all-around. Read more on the story here, and see the Olympics schedule here.
