US tennis star apologises for ‘offensive’ Chinese food comments

American tennis star Taylor Townsend has apologised after coming under fire for comments she made on social media about Chinese food.

The 29-year-old who is in the Chinese city of Shenzhen for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, had posted videos on Instagram in which she talked about dishes that featured frogs, turtles and sea cucumber, saying: “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen… Imma have to talk to HR… [eating] turtle and bullfrog is WILD.”

She quickly faced backlash on both English and Chinese social media platforms.

Ms Townsend, who is the world’s top-ranked doubles player, later apologised saying: “There’s no excuse, there’s no words and, for me, I will be better.”

“I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel all around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things I love so much about what I do,” she said in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, adding that she had “the most amazing experience” at the tournament.

Townsend had a day earlier taken to Instagram to share her reaction to some of the food she saw being served at a restaurant, including dishes like braised soft-shell turtle with fish maw and dry pot bullfrog.

These are considered traditional delicacies in China, particularly in the south.

“These people are literally killing frogs… bullfrogs. Aren’t those poisonous? Aren’t those the ones that be giving you warts and boils and stuff? And turtles?… All in all I’d give this like a solid two out of 10 so far, because this is crazy,” Ms Townsend said then.

She also posted another video where she appeared to be at a buffet with her teammate Hailey Baptiste, with the two making fun of a sea cucumber dish.

She was quickly called out on social media.

“Won’t defend Taylor here, clearly offensive and shocks a lack of understanding [that] there are different cultures other than USA,” said one user on X.

“It’s really offensive to mock other people’s cultural food,” said another.

Chinese social media quickly caught light of her comments, and the hashtag “American tennis player publicly insults Chinese food” started trending.

“When you go overseas, respect the local customs and culture. You can choose not to eat it. There is no need to belittle our food,” said one comment on Weibo.

The latest backlash comes less than a month after Ms Townsend got into a heated confrontation with her Latvian rival Jelena Ostapenko in which the latter said she had “no class” and “no education”.

Ms Ostapenko apologised but denied being racist, saying her comments were in reference to tennis etiquette. “But I understand how the words used could have offended many people beyond the tennis court,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

Ms Townsend and her teammates are due to face Kazakhstan for the quarter finals on Thursday.