Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Culture
CultureEditor's PicksEntertainmentSports

NBC’s Al Trautwig Backs Down from Comments About Simone Biles’ Parents After Backlash

Posted byBy Kiersten Willis | Published on: CommentsComments (10)
Al Trautwig and Simone Biles (Daily Dot, US News)

Al Trautwig and Simone Biles (Daily Dot, US News)

Al Trautwig, the gymnastics commentator for NBC’s Olympic Games coverage, has found himself in hot water for claiming Simone Biles’ adoptive mother and father are not her parents. The athlete was adopted by her maternal grandfather  and his wife – Ron and Nellie Biles –at age 6 with her younger sister Adria. The pair took the siblings in after their daughter struggled with drugs and alcohol.

Trautwig referred to Ron and Nellie as Simone’s grandparents on air during the competition. When a Twitter user corrected him he said, “They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents.”

The tweet was later deleted but not before others captured a screenshot, including Maggie Astor.

https://twitter.com/MaggieAstor/status/762474766619992064

Many responded to the message, including Aimee Boorman, Simone’s long-time coach.

Lauren Brewer questioned why Ron and Nellie kept being called her grandparents, adding “adoptive parents are parents.”

Andrew Watring thought the network needed to “educate yourself about adoption.”

Later on, NBC released a statement saying, “we became aware of the situation last night and addressed it with Al quickly.”

Time reported the 19-year-old Olympic all-around finalist was formally adopted by her grandparents on Christmas Eve 2002. Biles asked if she could call her grandmother mom on the first day it became official. Now, she refers to Nellie and Ron as mom and dad. While she has met her biological mom a few times, she only hears from her on birthdays and holidays.

“When I was younger, I thought every kid was adopted,” she told the magazine in June. “I didn’t understand why people made it such a big deal. To me, it’s just normal.”

According to USA Today, Trautwig emailed an apology to NBC Sports.

“I regret that I wasn’t more clear in my wording on the air,” he explained. “I compounded the error on Twitter, which I quickly corrected. To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone’s parents.”

The statement came too little too late, however. The hashtag #FireTrautwig sprung up online after the commentator apologized.

@mskavon called for Trautwig’s “immediate dismissal.”

https://twitter.com/mskavon/status/762737240787279873

@olympicstoelect thought Trautwig’s statement was simply a defense of his “insensitive words.”

https://twitter.com/olympicstoelect/status/762718322534277120

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top