Italian state broadcaster sports boss quits after Olympic gaffes

Italian public broadcaster RAI said Thursday its head of sport has resigned, days after a gaffe-filled commentary of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony that sparked threats of a strike by reporters.

RAI Sport head Paolo Petrecca faced widespread ridicule after mistaking Italian actress and singer Matilda De Angelis for star Mariah Carey and Kirsty Coventry, head of the International Olympic Committee, for the Italian president’s daughter.

He also incorrectly called Milan’s San Siro stadium the “Olympic stadium”.

During the parade, he referred to Spanish athletes as being “always very hot” and said of the Chinese athletes that “naturally many of them have phones in their hands”.

The Rai Sport journalists’ union said at the time that it would hold a three-day strike after the Olympics over “the worst humiliation of Rai Sport”.

“Rai Sport director Paolo Petrecca has resigned from his post.. and will step down at the end of the Milan-Cortina Olympics,” a source at the broadcaster told AFP.

The Games conclude on Sunday.

Petrecca’s reported ties to far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government also fuelled a national debate over alleged right-wing bias at RAI.

Nominations for top positions at Italy’s public broadcaster are often seen as political.

With Petrecca, who previously headed up Rai News, “RAI offered its worst version: the one we know all too well, TeleMeloni,” the opposition Democratic Party said.