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Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News,
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News,
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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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Sawyers, a Great Britain long jumper, then responded: "Well we can’t see them very well.
"Raven Saunders is actually non-binary and wearing the mask there, we’re quite used to seeing them with interesting attire."
And as for why Sawyers refers to themselves as the Hulk, they told Yahoo: "Early on, similar to the Hulk, I had a tough time differentiating between the two; I had a tough time controlling when the Hulk came out or when the Hulk didn’t come out.
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"But through my journey, especially dealing with mental health and things like that, I learned how to compartmentalise, the same way that Bruce Banner learned to control the Hulk, learned how to let the Hulk come out during the right moments and that way it also gave him a sign of mental peace.
“But when the Hulk came out, the Hulk was smashing everything that needed to be smashed.”
As for what competing in the Olympics means to them, Sawyers added: "Everything that I’ve been through mental health-wise, injuries, everything like that, financial, really being able to invest everything that I have mentally and physically ... [to] be able to walk away with a medal and inspire so many people in the LGBTQ community, so many people who have been dealing with mental health issues, so many of the African-American community, so many people who are Black all around the world, I really hope that I can inspire and motivate.”
Sawyers qualified for the women's shot put final after throwing 18.62 metres which will take place on Friday (9 August).
Tyla has contacted the BBC for comment.