An Olympic commentator has been corrected live on-air after misgendering masked athlete, Raven Saunders.
The 28-year-old, who made a name for themselves at the Tokyo Olympics having won silver, has now got their sights set at taking home the gold medal for Team USA at the Paris Games.
The extremely talented shot put star has unfortunately faced many barriers in their journey, including mental health struggles and injuries.
However, Saunders’ ‘mantra’ is that ‘nothing in the world will stop me being great’, according to i News.
Saunders, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, told the outlet: “I am constantly sitting myself down and looking in that mirror and reminding myself, ‘You’re Raven, The Hulk. You will achieve it’.”
However, the athlete was unintentionally misgendered by BBC commentator Steve Backley who described Sawyers as ‘her’ during the women’s shot put qualifying event at the Stade de France.
Saunders’ correct pronouns were immediately pointed out by BBC co-commentator Jazmin Sawyers.
The shot putter, who was rocking purple and green hair during the sporting event, garnered a lot of attention for wearing a face mask during the competition with many viewers wondering the reason.
Now, the reasoning behind them donning a face mask to compete is pretty simple – when trying out for Olympic qualifying events in 2020 and 2021, athletes had no other choice but to wear masks due to Covid rules at the time.
Saunders eventually got used to wearing the mask while shot putting, so it stuck around.
Furthermore, they discovered that wearing the mask stopped them from ‘getting caught up in pre-competition chat’.
It helped the athlete focus on their mind rather than anything else.
During the shot put event, Backley, a former world record Team GB javelin thrower, could be heard saying: “The colourful character of Raven Saunders back.
“Good to see her back, sort of. Sort of see her, I mean.”
Sawyers, a Great Britain long jumper, then responded: “Well we can’t see them very well.
