Television commentators have come under fire for repeatedly misgendering an athlete at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
20-year-old Alana Smith from the US, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, was competing in the women's skateboarding street event when they were repeatedly referred to as "she" and "her" by commentators from NBC and BBC.
This was despite Smith being very public with their pronouns, including having "they/them" written on the grip tape of their skateboard and wearing a "pronoun pin".
The mistake was called out online, where the professionalism of Todd Harris and Paul Zitzer for NBC Sports and Marc Churchill and Ed Leigh for the BBC was called into question.
"This is journalistic malpractice," wrote Britni de la Cretaz, a US-based trans journalist.
"No one should have to be misgendered on an international stage like this. Sports doesn't know what to do with non-binary athletes," she added.
Others agreed, saying that it was not hard to get their pronouns right.
Another BBC commentator, Tim Warwood, defended his colleagues and insisted it was a "mistake".
NBC issued an official apology, to Smith and their own viewers.
"NBC Sports is committed to — and understands the importance of — using correct pronouns for everyone across our platforms. While our commentators used the correct pronouns in our coverage, we streamed an international feed that was not produced by NBCUniversal which misgendered Olympian Alana Smith. We regret this error and apologize to Alana and our viewers."
Smith, who placed last in the event, wrote an emotional post on Instagram, saying that "for the first time in my entire life, I'm proud of the person I've worked to become."
Fans were buoyed by Smith's infectious enthusiasm and celebrated the historic moment with them.