NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Townsend is apologizing after she disparaged Chinese language meals on social media
- The 2-time main doubles champ is in China to play the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup
- Townsend mentioned she “shall be higher” shifting ahead
Taylor Townsend says “there is no such thing as a excuse” for social media posts by which she referred to as Chinese language meals “loopy.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the tennis star posted an apology on her Instagram Tales following a sequence of movies by which she shared her opinions on a buffet in Shenzhen, China which served bullfrogs and soft-shelled turtles.
“I simply needed to return on right here and apologize sincerely from the underside of my coronary heart,” Townsend, 29, started in her video. “I perceive that I’m so privileged as an expert athlete to have the ability to journey all world wide and expertise cultural variations which is among the issues that I really like a lot about what I do.”
She continued, “And I’ve had nothing however essentially the most superb expertise and time right here, and the match and everybody has been so sort and so gracious. And the issues that I mentioned weren’t consultant of that in any respect and I simply really needed to apologize.”
The 2-time main doubles champion is in China to compete within the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup.
In a sequence of now-deleted movies, the athlete expressed her shock at a wide range of culinary choices she encountered.
“What the hell?” Townsend mentioned at one level concerning a dish that includes sea cucumbers. “That is loopy. I’ve by no means seen considered one of these up shut, particularly to not eat.”
In a separate video, she questioned if bullfrogs have been “toxic” and that consuming them might trigger “warts and boils.”
On Chinese language social media, commenters have been fast to hit again.
“It’s completely regular to return throughout meals that aren’t your style when competing overseas,” one Weibo person wrote, based on NBC Information. “However it’s actually inappropriate to brazenly categorical disgust to the world.”
The controversy comes weeks after Townsend drew discover on the US Open for a fiery net-side interplay with opponent Jelena Ostapenko, who later apologized for accusing the American of getting “no class” and “no training.”
Now, Townsend says she’s going to “be higher” within the wake of her feedback.
“There isn’t any excuse, there’s no phrases, for me, I simply, I shall be higher,” the mom of 1 mentioned. “I’m actually actually grateful to my nation to have the ability to signify them and to be higher, and that’s all that I can do. I simply really apologize.”