(1)As a native American English speaker, I find the comment highly offensive and hope that Mr. MacDonald apologizes for his choice of words
(2)Personally, I would vote for "An unfortunate choice of words" rather than "an insult
(3) It's not offensive at all.. it's Canadian slang. "she dropped the ball, baby" means she did something unwise. "Too excited, went out like stink" means she got too excited .. she started hard and fast". "Died like a ping" means she ran out of energy. No offense was meant.
(4) Neither 'like stink' nor 'die like a pig' are necessarily insulting in use with reference to persons, although the second is clearly something to be avoided.
(5)I think most (Chinese) viewers mainly took issue with how the phrase "died like a pig" was translated (as it was taken literally --> "像死猪一样"). While I agree that it is certainly unprofessional to use such slang in an international event like the Olympics, I don't believe it was racist or meant to be highly offensive. Swimmers in Canada often use the phrase "died like a pig" to describe their own lackluster performance (see below).
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