Philippe Candeloro, ex-figure skater and Olympic medalist, spoke out against wokism during an interview with “Figaro La Nuit”. He fears this move threatens his job as a sports commentator.
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The Olympic medalist spoke about the current climate and its impact on his job as a sports commentator: “Today with #MeToo, with wokism, we are no longer as natural as at the start,” he confided. “We self-censor out of fear (…) that every word we say will almost be an insult.”
Philippe Candeloro regrets a bygone era when one could express oneself more freely, without fear of being accused of misogynist or homophobic.
“I’m straight, yes,” he says. “Is it a disease to be straight today? I have the impression so,” he laments. “They are trying to take away my DNA, the way I have lived my whole life, that is to say with my stupid schoolboy jokes,” he continues. “I have a Norman mother, so we went to Norman weddings where it’s tit-for-tat, and where we have fun turning the napkins!” “Everything we have been taught, we want to take it away from you,” he gets annoyed.
“France Télévisions risks firing me”
In 2014, Philippe Candeloro sparked controversy following derogatory comments about a skater’s buttocks during the Sochi Olympic Games. 10 years later, the skater recognizes his mistake. But nuance: “Except that thanks to the comments I was able to make, we brought in 3 million additional viewers at one point.”
“Before I arrived, we were bored. We brought a little humor (…), which meant that guys who never watched skating started listening to us. Guy or lady!”, he congratulates himself.
The former skater has the impression that his positions and his outspokenness no longer correspond to the image that the channel for which he works wishes to convey. “Today, France Télévisions risks firing me, because I am no longer the one they came for sixteen years ago,” he concludes.
Outcry
Philippe Candeloro’s interview caused a wave of criticism on social networks.
“For your next moves, don’t bother writing “VERY FRAGILE” on your boxes, write directly “CANDELORO”,” quips an Internet user.
“He was already very, very stupid and vulgar when he was skating, I heard him on TV as a kid. It hasn’t gotten any better,” added an Internet user.
“We ask him to comment on figure skating, not to make his heavy jokes about women, gays or foreigners. How is this the dictatorship of “wokism”?” asks a tweeter.
