Olympics commentator Todd Richards has clarified his “hot mic” moment during the Men’s Big Air final, in which he called the competition “so boring.”
“We just wrapped up the Men’s Big Air final, big shout-out to gold medalist Kira Kimora out of Japan, [it was] an unbelievable performance from him,” Richards, 56, began in a Saturday, February 7, social media video. “It was a show, and I feel like I should address an elephant in the room here.”
The retired snowboarding star continued, “There was a hot mic moment right after we thought we had gone off the air. I turned to my cohost, Todd Harris, and I said, ‘That was boring, that was so boring. I thought the qualifiers were better.’ I did. I did think the qualifiers were more exciting.”
Richards and Harris, 55, were overheard discussing the end of the Men’s Big Air final heat during a perceived commercial break.
“That was boring, that was so boring,” Richards lamented on the broadcast. “[The] qualifier was way more exciting.”
The TV journalist later clarified his comments had “nothing to do with the athletes.”
“It had everything to do with the drama that went down in qualifiers, we had Val Guseli getting the call-up four hours before the event,” Richards said in his Saturday video. “We had all kinds of different creative tricks being done, butters off the lip, different kinds of axis of rotation [and] all these riders trying to get it by doing creative spins. In the final? A lot of people fell and a lot of people truly did the same trick.”
He continued, “[My commentary] had nothing to do with what these athletes do because the riders come out here and they throw down. I have the utmost respect for them. It really just lent itself to the format, and I thought the qualifier had a lot more excitement.”
Richards further apologized if any Olympics viewers took his remarks as “calling out any of the riders.”
“It truly wasn’t about them,” he stated. “These guys are my heroes, they are my friends, they are my colleagues and they are all rippers. So, huge shout-outs to everyone who came out here tonight and threw down.”
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Richards further praised Team USA snowboarder Ollie Martin for trying “so hard” and narrowly missing the podium. (Martin, 17, finished in fourth place behind Chinese athlete Su Yiming.)
“What a show!” Richards concluded his upload. “Well, we’ve got the women’s qualifier in Big Air tomorrow. I can’t wait to see that. I got a chance to go go-carting with Mia Brooks the other day. Her headspace, she’s in a good place. Can’t wait to watch it, [so] stick around. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Many Olympians, for their parts, didn’t take Richards’ comments too seriously.
“Nah, pretty boring 😂 no need to explain,” Guseli, 20, wrote in the comments section. “Every single rider in the finals could win on any night. Snowboarding, it’s getting real. C y’all in pipe 😜🤌.”
Charles Beckinsale, meanwhile, added, “No apology needed, medium air events are boring. The Olympics are lucky the riders are so good they can still hit big tricks on small features. I’m not advocating for spin to win, but the current level of big air riding is 360 more than what this event saw. … Kinda feel big air needs to be big with more creative formats if it is to survive as a discipline.”
