NBC repeatedly misgendered trans Olympic skier Elis Lundholm

Milan Winter Olympics commentators repeatedly misgendered Elis Lundholm during their women’s moguls coverage shared by NBC on Peacock.

Lundholm is the first out transgender man to compete in a Winter Olympics. He is the second out trans male Olympian ever.

He stormed out of the gate with purpose and navigating the first jump feature, did his style element, landed clean and attacked the next moguls. A slight overcorrection in the moguls sent him crosswise off the course, an early disappointment.

It was chronicled by another disappointment, courtesy of the NBC/Peacock color commentator of the event.

“Getting off course here though…oh she just skids out of that gate. She’s going to hop up and go around to make sure she does not DNF as she continues down the line here.”

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Five years after NBC Olympics commentators misgendered skateboarder Alana Smith during the Tokyo Olympics you’d hope that NBC would have at least one researcher who made sure that the commentators got the memo about an athlete’s pronouns.

NBC shared regret for this.

“NBC Sports takes this matter seriously,” NBC told Outsports. “Today we streamed an international feed with non-NBCUniversal commentators who misgendered Olympian Elis Lundholm. We apologize to Elis and our viewers, and we have removed the replay of that feed.”

In the last week Outsports, and quite a few other outlets, ran stories about Lundholm and the place in sports history he’ll hold.

Lundholm is competing in the women’s category. By International Ski Federation regulations, he can do so because he has not started a masculinizing hormone replacement therapy regiment. Similar regulations allowed Filipino boxer Hergie Bacyadan to compete in the women’s event in Paris in 2024.

It was not surprising, and somewhat understandable, that this was not mentioned on the broadcast of Tuesday’s qualification round. The International Olympic Committee is straining to figure out what their position on transgender inclusion looks like.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry is getting pressure from the anti-trans government of the host nation of the 2028 Summer Olympics.

NBC perhaps didn’t want to deal with controversy that could arise while they are televising this games and trying to make viewers hungry for Los Angeles in two years.

However, this isn’t about “politics.” This is about common respect and Journalism 101. This is about getting a fact right.

The public address announcer on site at the event did get it right, referring to Lundholm as “he” and “him.”

There is no excuse for a major media broadcaster of these Games to fail so miserably.

Lundholm is looking ahead to Wednesday’s qualification round. It’s a last chance to ski his way into the finals later Wednesday and perhaps a chance to win an Olympic medal and perhaps make even greater history.

He’s already stated that any possible derision should he break into contention won’t affect him. As he stated to the Swedish daily Aftonbladet last month, “Of course it’s something I thought about. You can hear the voices out there. But then, I do my thing and don’t give a damn.”

This trailblazer has another opportunity looming ahead, and the commentators covering this event have another chance to get things right as well.

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