German football giant Borussia Dortmund has apologised after appearing to mock a woman from Wales with a stammer in a video posted on the club’s TikTok account.
The clip featured influencer Jessie Yendle struggling to pronounce a sound as she stammered, before the repetition transitioned into the start of a popular TikTok dance track playing over footage of striker Serhou Guirassy.
Triathlon organiser Ironman posted a similar clip, and Ms Yendle, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said she was “deeply shocked” by the videos.
Borussia Dortmund and Ironman have both apologised, with the club saying they would fly Ms Yendle to a Champions League game.
A spokeswoman for Ms Yendle said: “Jessie has been deeply shocked and hurt to discover the videos shared on social media.
“As someone who has courageously used her platform to raise awareness about stammering, being mocked in such a cruel and public manner is not only personally distressing, but also extremely disappointing.
“Sadly, these posts only highlight just how far we still have to go in building a truly inclusive and respectful society.”
Ironman deleted the video after online criticism of the reel gathered momentum and said it was “truly sorry”, while Borussia Dortmund removed the clip, which was posted in early August, after being contacted by the BBC.
The TikTok had 765,000 views before it was deleted. The eight times German champions and 1997 Champions League winners have 17.3m TikTok followers.
“It was absolutely not our intention to embarrass, insult, or attack anyone,” a spokesperson for the football club said in a statement.
The club said it was “deeply sorry” and wanted to apologise to Ms Yendle in person, inviting her to a UEFA Champions League match of her choice “to convince her on-site that we at Borussia Dortmund are good people”.
Ironman said in a comment on the initial post that it made a mistake.
“We should have done proper research before jumping on what we thought was a social media trend,” the organisation said.
It said it had also reached out to Jessie, known online as Mimidarlingbeauty to her 3.5 million followers on TikTok, to apologise to her.
“As an organisation, we care deeply about inclusion and have worked closely with athletes of all abilities,” Ironman said.
It also said it would be far more thorough in how it vetted content in future.
Jessie, who raises awareness of speech impediments, routinely gets millions of views on her TikTok videos about her stammer.
Since 2021, she has set herself challenges and posted them online, including ordering new items from menus in drive-throughs and asking for recommendations.
She has previously spoken about how she could not complete an interview for her “dream job” in London because of her stammer, recalling how she sat in a room for 20 minutes just trying to say her name.
The 30-year-old has also called for the introduction of a universal symbol to help the UK’s estimated 450,000 people with speech impediments.
[BBC]