BBC Olympics presenter Clare Balding embroiled in ‘classism’ row after ‘privileged’ remark

BBC presenter Clare Balding has been slammed after making a ‘privileged’ remark during Olympics coverage.

The veteran sports broadcaster is currently in Paris presenting her seventh Olympic Games for the national broadcaster, leading the coverage for the three-week international sporting event.

Clare, 53, has been fronting the swimming events from La Defense Arena over the past few days, with retired professional swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Mark Foster joining her during one of the broadcasts.

However, a comment Clare made rubbed some the wrong way.

The trio were discussing the legacy of David Wilkie, the first British champion to win a gold medal for swimming at the 1976 Montreal Games.

Mark, 54, who competed at five Olympics games and was the flag-bearer at Beijing in 2008, was reflecting on his inspiration to start participating in the sport and spoke about how gold medallist Duncan Goodhew had visited his swimming club when he was ten years old, moving him to try to follow in his footsteps.

‘It was that little moment that inspired me,’ he explained before asking Rebecca, 35, if she’d had a similar experience.

‘To be fair I didn’t have somebody like that,’ the two-time Olympic gold medallist and celebrated swimmer responded.

Jumping in, Clare looked surprised and asked: ‘No-one came to your school?’

‘No, no,’ she was told by Rebecca.

After Clare asked if ‘that’s why you make sure you do what you do’, Rebecca replied: ‘You end up doing your hobby and you love it.’

Although she changed the subject, some watching on at home were fuming.

‘Of course Balding thought it is TOTALLY NORMAL for Olympic medal winners to visit schools because being privately educated and descended from nobility and privilege this kind of thing is part of the cultural experience they expect,’ user Barry shared in a lengthy post on X.

‘Whereas if you go to an ordinary secondary school, you’re lucky if you get a day out at the end of the year.  If you’re really lucky and “someone done good” from your school you may get a visit one day. In my school years we had ZERO visitors of note.’

He added: ‘Working class kids are never exposed to successful people because it is so much harder for working class kids to get access to the time, money, contacts and resources.’

‘Clare Balding expressing amazement that Olympians hadn’t visited Rebecca’s school – not a bad person – but simply no vision that opportunities can be so different,’ Jackie commented.

‘It’s incredible how a tiny, privileged percentage of the population think their experience is thoroughly normal,’ Steve added.

Another, Dr Jessie: Durk added: ‘This is so weird as this is exactly what I said when I was watching it.’

Meanwhile user Sue reiterated how important the work athletes like Rebecca did visiting a range of schools and community venues.

‘My two met her at a local council pool. She came out on cloud 9 because Rebecca told her she was a good swimmer. Meant so much,’ she added.

However, there were people who said they were aware of Olympians visiting state schools, both decades ago and in more recent years.

One of those was Clare’s BBC colleague Gabby Logan, who defended the presenter.

‘I’m sure lots of what you say may be true about private school experiences, but it’s certainly not true about the whole of the BBC. I went to a state school nobody visited, teachers were striking in the Eighties, and no school trips. NB ‘Speakers for Schools’ is a great charity,’ she wrote.

‘Also to be clear I love my colleague and she’s a great broadcaster. But a sweeping statement about the BBC needed addressing. Look at our OG line up across the day, we are a mixed bag from different backgrounds bringing all our many experiences to the way we communicate.’

Clare was privately educated at the independent Downe House School in Berkshire, while Mark attended Millfield School, Kelly College and Southend High School for Boys.

Meanwhile Rebecca attended The Brunts Academy.

Metro.co.uk has contacted the BBC and representatives for Clare Balding and Rebecca Adlington for comment.

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