Alpine Skiing: The Minister of Justice Responds to the Schiffrin Scandal
Translation errors surrounding Michaela Schifrin are rife.
Now even the American feels compelled to comment, but he takes the whole thing in good humour. “Just in case everyone else is confused… It’s my period. We’re talking about my period,” she wrote on Twitter, captioning the post with a palm and laughing tears emoji.
She showed herself in a video while riding a bike on a home trainer.
However, this is not the end of it. The Austrian Minister of Justice has now spoken on this matter. Alma Zadish posted a video to Twitter showing her to a home trainer.
The 38-year-old told the camera: “Hi Mikaela Shiffrin! Good luck on your next race – and thanks for talking about your period. I think it’s only natural that we talk about it. Because like almost all women, I cycle once a month… “
Mikaela Schifrin talks about period pain — and it’s mistranslated
It started then Her second World Cup giant slalom victory on Kronplatz in South Tyrol. There, the alpine skiing star from the United States gave an interview to ORF in which she spoke candidly about the fact that her training is currently being affected by menstrual pain.
“I was at an unfortunate time in my period,” Shifrin said in an interview with moderator Alena Zellhofer. She notices that Shivrin was talking about her period (“I totally get it”).
Commentator Peter Brunner, as an interpreter, didn’t hear himself, thinking it was about “cycling” rather than “cycle”. Translated: “I can’t even ride my bike, which I usually do every month.”
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The translation error caused amusement on social media, but also at times an irritant: Brunner was accused of a lack of sensitivity, sometimes even malicious intent (“For an Austrian sports reporter, the possibility remains that an athlete would speak publicly about her period) in The year 2023 is unimaginable”). Others pointed out that proper handling of the female menstrual cycle in sports is a generally neglected topic.
ORF coordinator and well-known political journalist Armin Wolf then intervened, saying, “I think it is very good how the colleague with his creative translation helps Ms. Schifrin on the very special statement.”
It was clearly meant to be a humorous comment, but Wolfe fails to realize that Schifrin’s stated concern was not keeping the topic timidly private (“I want it to be a natural thing to talk about”).
After Wolfe received criticism and some allegations of misogyny, he deleted the tweet and said, “Irony still doesn’t work here.”