OPINION: Women in sport can't catch a break right now.

Women in sport right now can't catch a break. Especially over the past few days.

Australian Olympians Jessica and Noemie Fox are Penrith locals, and were invited to last Friday's Penrith Panthers NRL match at BlueBet Stadium in Penrith.

The Olympians were briefly part of Channel 9's live NRL coverage, alongside Brad Fittler, who is a former player, coach and now sports commentator. During his sidelines chat with the Fox sisters, Fittler — who was standing in between the two women — said: "I'm just waiting for kiss cam to come on... on me."

Jessica and Noemie appeared immediately confused and a little bewildered at the comment, offering nervous laughter and silence as their response.

Fittler quickly added: "It's not happening," before asking: "Do you like it? The environment here, do you like the footy?"

Noemie then clarified if they were live on TV.

"Yes, we're on," Fittler replied.

Noemie then said: "Oh, we're live? Yeah, I love the footy. Honestly, this is an amazing reception that we've received."

It was painful viewing, to say the least. A Nine spokesperson said Fittler's comments were referring to "a Kiss cam" that was in the stadium, but not part of the TV coverage.

"Brad's comments related to that activity on the ground. Brad's comments were not directed to the Fox sisters, no malice was intended, and no offence was taken. Freddy works tirelessly in the community space to improve the treatment of all Individuals and he remains a valued member of staff at Nine," they said. 

A Nine spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph that Fittler was just being "light-hearted".

Watch: You watch the viral-now-infamous kiss cam comment here. Post continues below.

Neither Jessica nor Noemie have spoken further on the situation and their thoughts on it.

But social media has been alight with opinions — mostly criticism towards a question like that being considered appropriate.

It comes just a month after the Australian women's Olympic swim team won gold, and a male commentator focused on something else.

Mollie O'Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris touched the wall in an incredible 3:28.92 time, securing gold for Australia at the Paris Olympics.

As the team stood proudly atop the podium, EuroSport commentator Bob Ballard said: "Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up."

Ballard's female co-commentator swiftly denounced the comment as "outrageous," and it resulted in his sudden removal from the air. But the damage was done.

For one ball girl at the US Open this weekend, she too was treated with utter disrespect.

During a match between Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player Yulia Putintseva and Italian player Jasmine Paolini, Putintseva appeared to take her losing frustrations out on the ball girl, who was simply doing her job. 

The ball girl was in position to pass her balls for the next serve to Putintseva, who stared directly at the ball girl and ignoring her. She then proceeded to further snub the ball girl when she bounced two balls towards the player.

On the third ball being bounced towards her, Putintseva begrudgingly picked up the third ball — but her tone and actions towards the ball girl were obvious to everyone in the stadium, as well as the commentators. 

You can see the now-viral interaction below:

Unforgivable behavior from Yulia Putintseva at the US Open pic.twitter.com/TlMtTi0uEY

— NTB Sports (@NotTheBeeSports) September 1, 2024

American tennis commentator Brad Gilbert wrote on X: "Tremendous effort from the Ball girl. Ball persons should never ever get dissed, since so many former players were a ball kid as well."

Aussie champ Rennae Stubbs posted: "The disrespect and obnoxious behaviour here is unbelievable."

Putintseva released a public apology after the criticism, saying: "I want to apologise to the ball girl for the way I was, when she was giving me balls. Honestly speaking, it was not about her. I was really pissed at myself by not winning the game."

These incidents are just high-profile examples from recent times. And sadly, women in sport are still up against some pretty dogged stereotypes and poor behaviour. 

But what we can do is celebrate and profile the sporting prowess of women.

In the vast majority of tennis grand slams, there are balanced gender ratios between ball girls and ball boys — far different to what it was decades ago.

In the Paris Olympics, Australia won 53 medals — specifically 18 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze. Out of those 53 medals, 32 were won by women. Out of the 18 gold medals, 13 of those were won by women. For the current Paralympic Games, Australia has 12 medals — six of those from female Paralympians.

It reminds us that women in sport are not to be dismissed or belittled. 

Feature Image: Nine.