John Inverdale (born 27 September 1957) is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV. During his radio career, he has presented coverage of many major sporting events including the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

, Wimbledon, the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...

and the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

. He was the main television presenter of ''

Today at Wimbledon ''Today at Wimbledon'' is a BBC TV show, showing highlights and discussion from the day's play at the Wimbledon Championships currently hosted by Clare Balding. The show lasts for 60 minutes and is broadcast on BBC Two at 8:30 pm. Origins ...

'' until 2014 and has hosted television coverage of sports programmes including '' Rugby Special'' and ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap al ...

''. He has presented ITV's coverage of the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

and the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

. Since 2013, Inverdale has been embroiled in several broadcasting

controversies Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...

, which have prompted criticism as well as articles written in his defence.

Early life

Inverdale was born in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, the son of a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

dental surgeon A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial comp ...

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

John Inverdale, who played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

for Devonport Services. Inverdale was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , hea ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

and at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, graduating with a history degree in 1979. He was the editor of the student newspaper ''Wessex News'' (now '' Wessex Scene'') and captained the university's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

team for two years. After gaining a post-graduate

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

qualification at University of Wales Institute,

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, he began his career with two years at the ''

Lincolnshire Echo The ''Lincolnshire Echo'' is a weekly British regional newspaper for Lincolnshire, whose first edition was on Tuesday 31 January 1893, and is published every Thursday. It is owned by Reach PLC and it is distributed throughout the county. The ...

'', and then joined

BBC Radio Lincolnshire BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios near Newport Arch in Lincoln. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

in 1982.

Broadcasting career

Radio

Inverdale began to work on the BBC's national radio stations in 1985, firstly on Radio 2's sports unit where he presented the final edition of ''Sport on 2'' in August 1990, then between 1990 and 1994 at Radio 5, where he presented the flagship sports programme '' Sport on 5''. In 1994 he became one of the main regular presenters on the relaunched

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

. He presented the drivetime show ''John Inverdale Nationwide'' until 1997, for which he was named Sony Broadcaster of the Year in 1997. At 5 Live, he hosted the topical show, ''Any Sporting Questions'', a variation on Radio 4's ''

Any Questions ''Any Questions?'' is a British topical discussion programme "in which a panel of personalities from the worlds of politics, media, and elsewhere are posed questions by the audience". It is typically broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays at 8 ...

'', and similarly toured the UK each week. In 2008 he broadcast for 5 Live from the Olympic Games in China. Along with Sir Steve Redgrave he appeared at Shunyi Rowing Lake for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. Inverdale headed 5 Live's coverage of the Wimbledon,

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

and

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the ex ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and rugby union World Cups,

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically he ...

and

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

. He has hosted the station's coverage of

BBC Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just one, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Several new awards have been ...

and occasionally guest presented on Radio 2. Inverdale left 5 Live in March 2019. In 2019 Inverdale provided radio commentary to Japan 2019

matches via the official audio commentary available through the

TuneIn radio TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The compan ...

platform.

Television

Inverdale worked extensively on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

during the channel's early years, most notably as presenter of

Goals On Sunday ''Goals on Sunday'' is a British football discussion television programme on Sky Sports that shows highlights and analysis of the Premier League, Scottish Premiership and Football League Championship matches. Shown every Sunday and Bank Holid ...

and on their coverage of Serie A Italian football, where

Alan Hansen Alan David Hansen (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. He played as a central defender for Partick Thistle, for the successful Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 1980s, and for the Scotla ...

regularly appeared alongside him as studio pundit. Inverdale has also worked regularly for

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

. He became the BBC's main Rugby Union anchor in the 2006

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

s following the departure of

Steve Rider Stephen Rider (born 28 April 1950) is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010. He was the lead presen ...

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.Sir Steve Redgrave. In October 2012, he filmed several episodes of Channel 4 show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and ev ...

''. Inverdale has hosted ITV's live

coverage from Roland Garros since 2012. From 2000 to 2014 he presented ''

'',

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

's nightly tennis highlights, until the format changed in 2015. This was mainly due to the 2013 Marion Bartoli controversy which led the BBC to drop Inverdale from the show. However, the new version ''Wimbledon 2Day'' hosted by

Clare Balding Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is an English broadcaster, journalist, and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport, is the current president of the Rugby Football League (RFL) and formerly presented the ...

was ridiculed by the public. Such was the unpopularity of ''Wimbledon 2Day'', a Twitter campaign called "bring back John Inverdale" attracted thousands of supporters, with Inverdale claiming that he had "never been so popular." The unpopular highlights show was ditched in 2016 and rebranded its original title, ''Today at Wimbledon''. Inverdale is now a member of the main commentary team. He appeared as himself in five episodes of 2016 BBC Three comedy '' Witless'' as the presenter of 'Witpro', a spoof video series about witness protection. Inverdale stepped down from anchoring the BBC's rugby coverage in March 2021.

Controversy

Owing to his involvement in multiple broadcasting controversies, Inverdale has been dubbed as "gaffe-prone".

Marion Bartoli

On 6 July 2013, the day of the Wimbledon Ladies Final, during a pre-match discussion on

5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

with commentator

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...

, Inverdale said of finalist and eventual winner

Marion Bartoli Marion Bartoli (; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also ...

: "I just wonder if her dad, because he has obviously been the most influential person in her life, I just wonder if her dad did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, 'Listen, you are never going to be, you know, a

looker ''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Albert Finney, Susan Dey, and James Coburn. The film is a suspense/science-fiction piece that comments upon and satirizes media, advertisin ...

. You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you're never going to be 5ft 11, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that. You are going to have to be the most dogged, determined fighter that anyone has ever seen on the tennis court if you are going to make it', and she kind of is." Inverdale's words prompted criticism on Twitter and other social media, with some alleging they had complained of his "sexist and patronising" view of women's tennis in the past.Patrick Sawer and Claire Duffi
"Wimbledon 2013: BBC apologise for John Inverdale's 'Bartoli not a looker’ comment"
telegraph.co.uk, 6 July 2013 Bartoli was yet to hear a recording of the incident when asked about it at a press conference the following day. She responded: "It doesn't matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I'm sorry. But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes. And to share this moment with my dad was absolutely amazing and I am so proud of it." Inverdale himself apologised on air the next day for his "ham-fisted comments", saying that he had "understandably caused something of a furore" and that he had apologised to Bartoli by letter."John Inverdale 'has written to Marion Bartoli over remark'"
BBC News, 7 July 2013 He also spoke to her at the Champions' Dinner that evening. A BBC spokesman said: "We accept that this remark was insensitive and for that we apologise." BBC Director of News James Harding was asked at a Women in Journalism event the following week whether Inverdale ought to be sacked. Harding said: "I think he said the wrong thing ... You have got to own your mistakes and apologise for them. I do think it's important that an apology too is an important thing and if you are talking about sacking someone,

ou have to ask OU or Ou or ou may stand for: Universities United States * Oakland University in Oakland County, Michigan * Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama * Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia * Ohio University in Athens, Ohio * Olivet Uni ...

is it proportionate. As a licence fee payer I think it was wrong." In the initial days the BBC received 674 complaints; further complaints were received after the story gained wider coverage.

Culture Secretary The secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and policy across the Department ...

Maria Miller Dame Maria Frances Miller'MILLER, Rt Hon. Maria (Frances Lewis)', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2012; online edn, November 2012 ...

wrote to BBC director general Lord Hall, expressing concern and asking about "any further action that is likely to be taken". In his reply, Hall wrote, "I agree that the comments made by John during the build-up to the women's final were totally unacceptable and fell well beneath the standards we expect of our presenters." Hall added that BBC executives told Inverdale that "an incident of this nature must never happen again". Racehorse trainer

Charlie Brooks Charlene Emma Brooks (born 3 May 1981) is a British actress. Known for the role of Janine Butcher in the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'', she has received numerous awards since her first appearance on the soap in 1999, with storylines inv ...

defended Inverdale as a "brilliant broadcaster" who "must not be hounded out of the BBC by Maria Miller". He asserted: "The orseracing industry should take this opportunity to embrace and support Inverdale. God only knows how many fans he has created with his enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge." In a joint interview with Bartoli the following year, as promotion for

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.2014 French Open coverage, Inverdale said he believed Miller's intervention, ten days after the original incident, was likely politically motivated and part of an anti-BBC agenda. Bartoli said: "I'd known John a long time, and I knew what he was trying to say. At the end of the day I am a tennis player, I know I'm not 6ft tall, I'm not the same long, lean shape as Maria Sharapova, but the beauty of tennis is that anyone can win, tall or short. Something the press took to be negative to me was a positive... In my mind it was never really a story.""Marion Bartoli and John Inverdale put aside last year's gaffe to present ITV's French Open coverage"
Radio Times, 25 May 2014

2016 Summer Olympics

Inverdale received "intense criticism" while presenting the BBC's coverage of the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. He and his co-host, Olympic rower

Steve Redgrave Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave (born 23 March 1962) is a British retired rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships gold ...

, were seen to have "clashed" several times on television, with Redgrave allegedly being afforded little opportunity to speak. The talkative Inverdale called Redgrave Oddjob, the silent Bond villain as a reference to Redgrave's quiet personality. This led to negative social media commentary of Inverdale. Redgrave was observed directing jibes toward Inverdale, shaking a wet umbrella over his head and even walking off the set. The BBC denied any hostility between the two. Following the men's tennis gold medal final, Inverdale congratulated

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray ...

on being the first tennis player to win two gold medals; although Murray is the first player to lift two singles golds, Serena and

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...

had previously won four golds each between singles and doubles tennis. Inverdale's comment was criticised as sexist and also brought the 2013 Marion Bartoli controversy back to the fore on social media. The BBC stated that the comment was "a simple error". Following the incident, ''

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

'' journalist Rob Bagchi wrote a piece titled "Why does everyone hate John Inverdale?", in which he defended Inverdale and suggested that critics were enjoying "the vicarious thrill in a sustained pile-on". The article was shared on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

by broadcaster

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio personality, presenter, broadcaster and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guest ...

. Inverdale experienced further censure when he was accused of "ignoring" British heavyweight boxer

Anthony Joshua Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles twice between 2016 and 2021. At r ...

during an interview. Some defended Inverdale, saying he was attempting to catch the eye of French boxer

Sarah Ourahmoune Sarah Ourahmoune (born 21 January 1982) is a French former female boxer. She won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 before she retired from boxing. Life Ourahmoune was born in 1982 in Sèvres. She is of Algerian descent. She won a silve ...

, whom they had been speaking of; she eventually joined them to talk. On the final day of the Olympics coverage, Inverdale was criticised again during a boxing broadcast when he interrupted Joshua to speak about the victorious French boxer Tony Yoka and claimed that Yoka and his partner might have become the first engaged or married couple to both win gold medals at the same Olympics, in spite of British cyclists Laura Trott and her fiancé

Jason Kenny Sir Jason Francis Kenny, (born 23 March 1988) is an English former track cyclist, specialising in the individual and team sprints. Kenny is the holder of most Olympic gold medals (7) and medals (9) for a British athlete. His wife, Laura Ke ...

both having won golds just days earlier, and married couple

Kate Richardson-Walsh Kate Louise Richardson-Walsh, (''née'' Walsh; born 9 May 1980) is an Olympic Gold and Bronze Medal winning English field hockey player. She was capped a record 375 times for her country and was the England and Great Britain Captain for 13 yea ...

and

Helen Richardson-Walsh Helen Richardson-Walsh, (''née'' Richardson, born 23 September 1981) is an English hockey player who plays as a midfielder. She has been a member of both the England and the Great Britain women's field hockey teams since 1999, and was a membe ...

having both won gold medals in the women's hockey just two days prior. The day after this final Rio 2016 controversy for Inverdale, Mark Davies of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'' penned an article titled "In defence of John Inverdale", in which he wrote that the broadcaster had been subjected to a large volume of "totally unwarranted" censure. Davies felt it was "clear" what Inverdale meant during the Murray and Yoka incidents and was doing "what all broadcast interviewers do" during the Joshua episode by looking for future interviewees.

Other

During a 2014

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

broadcast, Inverdale said that England – rather than Great Britain – would play the United States of America in that year's

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

; he apologised later in the programme. The comment nevertheless sparked complaints from viewers who found it to be "inaccurate and biased". The BBC called it an "unintentional slip". During

's coverage of the 2015

, Inverdale said "rose-cunted" on air, in reference to

glasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples ...

. He swiftly apologised, attributing his language to a " slip of the tongue". Ben Rumsby in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' called Inverdale's mistake "a genuinely unfortunate mangling of the words 'coloured' and 'tinted'". At the

2016 Wimbledon Championships The 2016 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament which took place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main draw commenced on 27 June 2016 and concluded on 10 July 2016. 2016 ...

, Inverdale commented that tennis player

Nick Kyrgios Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios ( ; born 27 April 1995) is an Australian professional tennis player. In singles, Kyrgios' career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles ranking of world No. 13 was achieved on 24 October 2016. He has won sev ...

"lumbered off like a character from ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...

''", which led to allegations of racism on social media. The BBC declined to comment on the incident, beyond describing the number of complaints received as "small".

Awards and personal life

Inverdale received a

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...

honorary degree from the

in July 2001. He was awarded an honorary fellowship to the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) in November 2009. Inverdale lives in

Branston, Lincolnshire Branston is a large village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, south-east of Lincoln on the B1188 road to Sleaford. It is the principal settlement in the civil parish of Branston and Mere, population 4,019 (in the 2 ...

with his wife and two daughters. He made national news in 2005 when his face appeared in many newspapers showing the scars he received whilst playing rugby union for

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up ...

. He is a fan of both

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and Lincoln City football clubs.Quick-fire round: John Inverdale , Sport , The Observer
Observer.guardian.co.uk (10 February 2011). Retrieved on 27 March 2013. In 2005 Inverdale became a patron of charity Cardiac Risk in the Young.

References

External links

*
John Inverdale – BBC and Canoeing Commentator!
Radio Waves, 31 May 2009 – Students interview John Inverdale {{DEFAULTSORT:Inverdale, John 1957 births Alumni of the University of Southampton Alumni of Cardiff Metropolitan University BBC Radio 5 Live presenters BBC sports presenters and reporters English radio personalities English sports broadcasters English male journalists English television presenters Golf writers and broadcasters Living people People educated at Clifton College Mass media people from Devon Tennis commentators English male non-fiction writers People from North Kesteven District Devonport Services R.F.C. players