Byron MacDonald
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Arthur Byron MacDonald | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
July 23, 1950 Chicago, Illinois | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 61 kg (134 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Butterfly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of Michigan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Arthur Byron MacDonald (born July 23, 1950) is an American Canadian swimming coach who helms the Toronto Varsity Blues swim teams at the University of Toronto. He is a former swimmer who competed for Canada in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. MacDonald placed sixth in the final of the men's 100-metre butterfly, and also competed in the preliminary heats of the 200-metre butterfly, but did not advance.[1]
He has coached Varsity Blues swim teams to 17 Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships -- nine women's, and eight men's [2] -- including most recently, a women's and men's team competition sweep of the 2015-2016 national titles.[3]
He also works as a television commentator analyzing major competitions in swimming. He is a two-time recipient of the Gemini Award for sports play-by-play broadcasting in recognition of his swimming analysis on CBC at the Summer Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008.[4]
Controversy
Commentating as a swimming analyst on CBC's live telecast of 2016 Summer Olympics women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay August 10, 2016, he mistakenly uttered on the air an off-the-cuff opinion to his co-commentator Elliotte Friedman. He criticized China's relay second-leg swimmer Ai Yanhan for swimming her first 50 metre split too fast, then consequently due to fatigue, her last 50 metre split too slowly.[5]
Caught out being unaware that his microphone was still open to air, he said, "The little 14-year-old from China dropped the ball, baby. Too excited. Went out like stink[6] and died like a pig. Thanks for that."
On the next day, both he,[7] and the CBC issued an apology for such comments.[8] The University of Toronto subsequently issued a statement reiterating CBC's apology on his behalf.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ "Olympics". sports-reference. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
- ↑ "University of Toronto Varsity Blues - Swimming Coaching Staff". University of Toronto. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
- ↑ "CIS swimming championships: Toronto sweep both titles for the first time in 23 years". Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
- ↑ "Byron MacDonald Analyst Swimming". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ↑ "Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final Results" (PDF). 2016 Summer Olympics. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ↑ "like stink". TheFreeDictionary. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
- ↑ "CBC Sports' swim analyst Byron MacDonald apologizes for comments directed at a Chinese swimmer". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ↑ "CBC apologizes after Olympic commentator says Chinese swimmer 'went out like stink, died like a pig'". National Post. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
- ↑ "Swim coach apologizes for on-air comments". University of Toronto. Retrieved August 12, 2016.