An Australian commentator on this year's winter olympics in South Korea was caught in an unfortunate gaffe when she said that the Chinese skiers "all look the same", adding "it's very hard to say who's who".

In a video posted on Twitter, commentator Jacqui Cooper can be heard making the comment after talking about the performance of a Chinese skier. Posting the video, user Albertinho said that he understood Cooper was talking about the athletes' technique, rather than making a racist comment, but that she did not use good phrasing.

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7Olympics channel, who were broadcasting the sport and on which the gaffe was heard, issued a clarification saying that the commentary was not racist and was in no way intended to be racist or offensive.

"During tonight's commentary of the Women's Aerials, commentator Jacqui Cooper, a former Olympian and World Champion, noted that an aerial manoeuvre was in a technical and style sense, very Chinese.

"Meaning that the whole of the Chinese aerial team are trained in the same way - and the manoeuvre referenced was a classic, technically perfect, trademark of that team's style. At no time was the commentary racist, intended to be racist or offensive," the statement said.

Some people on social media said that the station should have apologised for Cooper's bad wording. "Really awful choice of words, and obviously (and rightly) was going to cause a commotion," one user wrote.

On Twitter, Cooper wrote that after finishing her commentary, she saw comments about her remarks: "I need to make it clear I was talking about the jump. The Chinese are trained by one coach with one technique, their aim is all to jump the same," she said "Bring on the final tomorrow night."

Cooper is former freestyle skier who represented Australia in the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 winter Olympics.

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