Simone Biles offered a response to a reporter who referred to her adoptive parents as “not her parents.”
“They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents,” NBC anchor Al Trautwig tweeted this week, drawing controversy. The tweet has since been deleted.
Biles, when asked about it, said, “I personally don’t have a comment. My parents are my parents and that’s it,” according to Us Weekly.
Trautwig later apologized for the comment. “I regret that I wasn’t more clear in my wording on the air,” he said in a statement. “I compounded the error on Twitter, which I quickly corrected. To set the record straight, Ron and Nellie are Simone’s parents.”
Biles and her sister were adopted by her grandfather Ron Biles after their birth mother had difficulties caring for them. Simone was 5 years old when they were taken in by Ron and Nellie in 2002.
Trautwig has said that he announces gymnastics for millions of people turning in for NBC’s broadcasts—who generally aren’t familiar with the sport.
“I don’t spend any time at all learning what an Amanar is,” he said, referring to a popular vault in gymnastics, according to the Wall Street Journal. “When I do baseball, I have to know what a slider is, and I have to know the difference between that and a curveball. I have to know all the elements of the sport. In gymnastics, I take a totally different approach.”
An NBC Sports spokesman said on Monday: “We became aware of the situation last night and addressed it with Al quickly.”
