November 4 - Rebecca Adlington's mother Kay (pictured) has blamed the BBC for putting her daughter in the spotlight after they made public that they had taken no action against comedian Frankie Boyle after he had made "humiliating" comments about the double Olympic gold medallist.

 

Adlington, who won the 400 and 800 metres freestyle at last year's Beijing Olympics when she was still a teenager, claimed she was "humiliated" by the 37-year-old's comments during an episode of BBC 2's satirical show Mock the Week which was broadcast shortly after she claimed her gold medals.

 

The comic from Glasgow told the audience that Adlington resembled "someone who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon" and made a reference about her sexual habits.
 
The comment led to 75 complaints from viewers and although the BBC Trust criticised Boyle and agreed that his comment was unfair and offensive it chose not to take any further action.

 

Kay Adlington claimed that the fall-out from that decision has been worse than the actual incident more than a year ago.

 

She said: "It wasn't nice what the comedian said, but it was 15 months ago.

 

"If the BBC hadn't made their ruling public none of this would have started.

 

"All her agent has asked is if there's a better way dealing with such complaints because all this is doing is keeping it rolling along.

 

"This was 15 months ago - but who's gaining from it?

 

"Becky gets her picture in the papers alongside a disgusting comedian.

 

"The fact is, had the BBC edited [the show] we'd never have got to this stage.

 

"The double whammy for Becky is that they shouldn't have decided to [make the ruling] public."
 

Rebecca Adlington has now written to the BBC to complain about the lack of punishment.

 

The BBC Trust ruled they were 'offensive and unacceptable for broadcast'.

 

It also concluded Rebecca had not courted publicity or celebrity status, making the personal remarks unjustified.

 

Kay Adlington said: "The one thing you can say about this is that everybody in the country knew her as Miss Nobody [at the time of the Olympics], nobody knew who she was.

 

"All of a sudden she's all over the place.

 

"This is not doing her any good, but she's not done anything wrong."
 

 

 

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November 2009: Adlington complains to BBC over Boyle slur