‘Am I gonna get chicked?’: Olympian’s divisive comments on racing women cause backlash

Australian athlete Ryan Gregson is being accused of misogyny after making a controversial “getting chicked” comment about racing with women.

A clip from Olympian Ryna Gregson’s podcast is going viral – for all the wrong reasons. The former world-record breaker runs a podcast called FTK Patron, where he discusses the world of running.

In one clip, he referenced a “girl” keeping up with a male athlete. The girl in question is Agnes Jebet Ngetich, a Kenyan long-distance runner and the reigning World Cross-Country Champion.

@elizaanneboyd

#chicked #runtok #marathontraining #femalerunner #malepodcast

♬ original sound – Eliza Tumohe

“So they did a 10K recently and I think Liam ran about 28:20 or something, and Tim maybe 28:50. But Liam had a girl behind him for the first 5K. And I just said like, mate, that would be such a weird experience,” Ryan said on his podcast.

“You’re on track for a PB, you know you’re going well, but there’s a girl right next to you at halfway. You’re just re-evaluating everything.”

He continued: “You’re like ‘I’m on for a career day today but am I going to get chicked?’ He’s not the type of guy (where) that should even be going through his head. You’d be shook. You’d be going through all your life choices like ‘How did I end up here?’ and ‘Why didn’t I study harder?'”

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These statements immediately caused backlash from the running community and atheletes in general. The Female Athletes Project directly called out Ryan in an Instagram post that has over 17k likes.

“That ‘GIRL’ was the incredible WOMAN athlete and world record holder Agnes Jebet Ngetich – yes, men, shock! Women can run fast too,” they said. “We are sorry to break it to you lads, women are getting faster and faster. And in MANY cases women can beat a lot of the men. And this OK. In fact it should be supported.”

After the widespread controversy, Ryan issued an apology on his latest podcast episode, aptly titled Our Apology.

“I owe an apology for my comments on the episode. This isn’t a representation of how I see women in sport. My wife is an elite athlete and some of my proudest moments in the sport of running have been watching her win or be successful and beat up on male athletes, even as recent as this morning,” he said.

“That isn’t me, I respect the female athletes in this sport so much, especially because my wife is one of them and I would hate for young female athletes to think that I am that person that they heard on that episode. So I truly am sorry for my part.”

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Featured image via Instagram