Water Polo Wardrobe Malfunction: NBC Airs Bare Breast During 2012 London Olympics

By Eric Brown | August 01 2012 8:51 PM

NBC has a habit of airing Olympic sports time-shifted so that they align with prime time hours in America. Not so with water polo on Wednesday afternoon. During the women's match between Spain and the United States, one player ended up pulling down another's swimsuit on live television. The "wardrobe malfunction" resulted in NBC airing bare breasts and nipple live on television.

Reuters

Spain's Roser Tarrago Aymerich celebrates a goal during their women's water polo match against the U.S.

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The momentary boobage caused an uproar on Twitter, with many going online to seek confirmation that they did, indeed, lay eyes on a bare breast during NBC's live coverage of the event. According to SFGate, one of the more popular tweets about the wardrobe malfunction read, "I didn't know water polo was so erotic."

Of course, things like this happen. Water polo is a tough sport and all sorts of underhanded tricks are legal - including grabbing, punching, and basically everything all the way up to biting. So it's no surprise that sooner or later, someone ended up showing their nipple.

One commenter wrote, "I'm actually surprised we haven't had any televised dong shots during men's matches; I played it a bit in high school and crotch-grabbing is a common way of playing defense." Let's all be glad for that.

So yes, pulling down swimsuits is totally allowed. But the fact that the display was on live television means that NBC may rethink even the small amount of live coverage they currently offer, at least for sports like this.

Gawker affiliate Deadspin has the full uncensored pic here.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the match ended in a 9-9 tie.