COMMENT
A little PSA for any sporting commentators, presenters or sporting-adjacent personalities: if you’re interviewing a female athlete and get the urge to ask them to dance, just don’t. For the love of god, just swallow those words.
Yesterday, Norwegian player Ada Hegerberg was the inaugural winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or. One of the highest honours in world football, the forward beat out Australia’s Sam Kerr to take out the top award. Hegerberg, who is a three-time Women’s Champions League winner with French team, Lyon, was named the world’s best female player at the gala in Paris.
Normally reserved for men, it was the first time in its 62-year history that the Ballon d’Or recognised the achievements of female athletes. “This is a great motivation to continue working hard and we will continue to work together to win more titles," she said.
However, the 23-year-old’s moment of glory was marred by event host, DJ Martin Solveig, who asked Hegerberg if she wanted to twerk to celebrate the win. Hegerberg answered flatly, “no”, and attempted to walk off stage before finally agreeing to dance, albeit reluctantly. For Hegerberg’s achievement to be undermined by the tone-deaf request is not only baffling, it’s infuriating.
Sadly, Solveig’s comments will just be added to the long list of dumb sexist comments facing women in the sporting world. In 2016, following Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu’s world record-breaking win, one commentator called her husband and coach “the man responsible,” while during this year’s football World Cup in Russia, Brazilian sports reporter Julia Guimaraes was sexually harassed by a fan on air, and SBS commentator Lucy Zelić received sexist threats over the way she pronounced players' names.
Even Solveig’s bizarre request of Hegerberg was not the first time a female athlete has been asked to dance following an achievement. At the Australian Open in 2015, Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard was asked by commentator Ian Cohen to ‘give us a twirl’ during an on-court interview following her second round win.
All of these comments, whether tone deaf or something more sinister, beg the question, why is it still so hard to just talk to female athletes about sport?
Women’s sport has made so much progress in recent years, from this new recognition of women's football with the Ballon d'Or, to the introduction of female leagues in AFL and NRL here in Australia. But for every inch of progress we make, tone-deaf comments like Solveig's take us two steps back.
So, please, if you have the urge to ask a female athlete about her clothes; her husband; her favourite male sports star; or if you want to ask her to dance, please, bite your tongue. As Hegerberg said, the women’s Ballon d’Or is “a huge step for women’s football,” so next time, just ask her about that.
Norwegian drama 'Home Ground' follows football coach Helena Mikkelsen as she heads up a male professional team. Watch the series on SBS On Demand.
