Quintin Jardine's blog

I like Clare Balding. Usually she is a breath of fresh air on the public telly, when she’s dealing with subjects with which she’s familiar, mostly involving horses. But having her front poolside presentation of the Olympic swimming was a major mistake. Day one, she kicked off the Ye Shiwen controversy before the poor kid had time to dry off. Having got over that, just, she shot herself in the other foot last night by appearing to suggest that the brave Becky Adlington’s bronze medal had let swimmer and nation down. At the first opportunity, she was forced to apologise, abjectly on air, along with her co-presenter, Mark Foster, who had been drawn into it. Shame; I hope the damage to her BBC career isn’t permanent.