American tennis player Taylor Townsend apologized to make negative comments about food in China.
The 29 -year -old athlete, who is currently in Shenzhen’s Chinese city for Billie Jean King Cup finals, published several videos on her Instagram Stories where she expressed astonishment with some of the dishes served.
Among the dishes were turtle, all considered traditional ingredients in China and many other parts of the world.
“This is the crazy thing I’ve ever seen in my life … and people eating it,” she wrote in the caption of one of the videos.
“I will have to talk to HR … because what crazy … turtle and frog is too much,” he wrote in another photo of a menu published on Instagram.
Townsend, who is the number one player in the female pairs ranking, was soon harshly criticized for her comments.
The case generated remarkable indignation on Chinese social networks, with the hashtag “American tennis player criticizes Chinese food” being seen millions of times in Weibo.
A comment said, “It’s normal not to eat viscera, frogs, turtles. As a Chinese, I’m not like that either, but you need to show respect. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean everyone feels the same.”
Another stated that it seemed “prejudice and discrimination.”
The criticism took apologies on his Instagram Story.
“I understand that I am very privileged as a professional athlete for being able to travel around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things I love most about what I do,” she said, adding how the people of the tournament were kind this week.
“The things I said do not represent this at all and I really want to apologize. There is no excuse, there are no words. For my part, I’ll be better.”
The controversy arises after Townsend was involved in a heated discussion with Jelena Ostapenko during the US Open last month.
Ostapenko later apologized for saying that the American “had no class” and “had no education” when the two fell out at the end of their departure in the second round, a moment triggered because Townsend did not apologize for a point when the ball touched the net during the game.
Townsend is now part of the United States team that competes in the Billie Jean King Cup finals and will participate in the quarterfinals against Kazakhstan this week.
