American tennis player Taylor Townsend yesterday apologized after calling turtle and bullfrog served at a dinner buffet “crazy” while at the Billie Jean King Cup in China.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen ... and people eating this,” she said in videos posted on social media on Tuesday night.
“As I go back and I look ... these people are literally killing frogs ... bullfrogs. Aren’t those poisonous? Aren’t those the ones that give you warts and boils and stuff?” she said.
Photo: AFP
The hashtag “American tennis player publicly insults Chinese food” was one of the top trending topics on China’s Sina Weibo platform and had been viewed more than 50 million times by yesterday afternoon.
Sina Weibo users condemned the player’s take on Chinese dishes. Some resorted to racist remarks against Townsend, who is black.
The 29-year-old’s original posts attracted floods of comments criticizing the player. She yesterday took to Instagram to say sorry.
“I just wanted to come on here and apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart,” Townsend wrote.
“I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel all around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things I love so much about what I do,” she said. “I have had nothing but the most amazing experience and time here and in the tournament. Everyone has been so kind and so gracious and the things that I said are not representative of that at all.”
“There’s no excuse. I will be better,” she added.
The US team is today to play their quarter-final against Kazakhstan in Shenzhen.
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