New trouble for Rai. This time the commentary of the women’s synchronized trampoline World Cup final was at the center of the controversy, which was held in Fukuoka Japan. After the event broadcast on Rai Play 2, some viewers denounced racist and sexist comments made by the commentators Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi.
What the commentators Leonarduzzi and Mazzucchi said during the commentary
The final of Women’s Synchronized Trampoline World Championships broadcast on Monday 17 July on Rai Play 2, it was tarnished by some racist and sexist comments made by commentators Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and Massimiliano Mazzucchi. Commenting on Riccardo Giovannini and Eduard Timbretti Gugiu’s performance in synchronized diving, Leonarduzzi mispronounced the Italian athlete’s name by riding a stereotype on the Chinese language. Riccardo thus became “Licaldo”. “The Chinese would say so”, is the sentence uttered by the commentator and ended up in the few seconds video that quickly went viral on the net.
Also at the center of the discussion was the statement: “Smoke well, smoke healthy, smoke Pakistani”. Throughout the commentary there were denigrating dialogues between the two commentators, with sexist and offensive jokes towards the competing athletes. An example concerns a back and forth on the Dutch competitors. “The Dutch are big““like our Vittorioso“, “but anyway in bed they are all the same height”Leonarduzzi and Mazzucchi let it be known between pleased giggles.
And then again, while discussing one of the athletes in the competition, Harper, one of the two commentators said: “She’s a harp player. How to play the harp? Is it touched?”. The other replied sarcastically: “La si pizzica”, “Si la do“. “This is the advantage, men have to study seven notes, women only three“. “I knew it continued. Yes La Do. Sol Sol Fa”.
The provision of Rai after the words of Leonarduzzi and Mazzucchi
Rai has taken note of the complaints and has declared that it intends to take the case seriously, examining the circumstances in which these unacceptable comments occurred. Internal investigations are underway to assess any disciplinary sanctions against the commentators involved. Meanwhile, the two were invited to leave Japan immediately and to return to Italy.
“A Public Service journalist cannot justify himself by relegating what was broadcast to a ‘bar joke’ – specified the CEO of Rai Robert Sergio -. I have given a mandate to the offices in charge to start the disciplinary dispute procedure and I have asked the director of Rai Sport Iacopo Volpi to immediately bring the commentator Lorenzo Leonarduzzi and the technical commentator Massimiliano Mazzucchi back from Japan”.
The apologies of the Rai commentator Leonardo Leonarduzzi
Corriere della Sera received an apology from Leonardo Leonarduzzi: “I distance myself from everything that has been picked up by a microphone left on for technical reasons and a meter and a half away from me. Some of these phrases that have been attributed to me I didn’t really say “.
“These are words that don’t belong to me – he added – far from my way of being and pronounced off-air while chatting with my colleague. I have already been a victim a couple of years ago of a unfortunate incident, all the more reason now I am particularly careful of what I say. I don’t want my professionalism to be tarnished by these situations.”
Who is Leonardo Leonarduzzi and the uncomfortable precedent
Leonardo Leonarduzzi, journalist, is not new to controversies of this kind: in December 2020, at the end of the Monza rally, played with the surname of the Estonian driver Ott Tanak: “Today they told me one – his words on the Rai Sport microphone -, they want me to win 100 euros if I say it. They told me a bad joke that I refer to: “Donna nanak all Tanak”. The exit prompted the then director of Rai Sport, Auro Bulbarelli, to apologise, and at the opening of an investigation that ended with suspension.
Who is Massimiliano Mazzucchi
Massimiliano Mazzucchi is a Italian ex diver. In her career she has participated in two editions of the Olympic Games – Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 – winning an eighteenth and twentieth place in the 10-meter platform diving competition. She stopped competing in 2013.
