A radio host has issued an apology after calling Chloe Kim a “little hot piece of a**” after her gold medal performance at the Winter Olympics.

The 17-year-old became one of the breakout stars of the Games when her brilliant performance in the snowboard halfpipe final clinched gold. But Patrick Connor, appearing on the Dialed-In with Dallas Braden show on Barstool Radio’s SiriusXM channel, wanted to talk about her appearance. “She’s fine as hell,” said Connor. “If she was 18, you wouldn’t be ashamed to say that she’s a little hot piece of a**. And she is. She is adorable. I’m a huge Chloe Kim fan.”

Connor then went on to reference Wooderson, Matthew McConaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused who pursues high school girls. “Her 18th birthday is 23 April, and the countdown is on baby, ’cause I got my Wooderson going,” said Connor. “‘That’s what I like about them high school girls.’”

When Deadspin brought attention to the story on Tuesday, Connor’s response was to tweet: “Deadspin still exists?”. However, after widespread criticism and concern from his employer, Connor issued a statement on Twitter on Wednesday.

“Yesterday in a weird attempt to make people laugh I failed,” he wrote. “My comments about @chloekimsnow were more than inappropriate they were lame & gross. Im truly sorry Chloe. You’ve repped our country so brilliantly. I apologize to my colleagues & the listeners for being a total idiot.”

Barstool is immensely popular with young, mostly male, readers and listeners, and was valued at around $15m when an investment group bought a 51% stake in 2016.

However, it is known for sexist jokes and crude humour. In December, Barstool’s editor-in-chief deleted a post in which he called a 16-year-old cheerleader “hot”. In October, journalist Elika Sadeghi turned down a job with the company after being asked to agree to a contact clause saying she should expect to be exposed to “offensive speech, sexual scenarios, suggestive gestures, and references to stereotypes” in the workplace.

Barstool founder Dave Portnoy said the clause was standard for a publication that deals in humour. “We’re not saying you can grope somebody, we’re not saying you can sexually harass somebody, we’re saying we’re gonna make jokes and you gotta be cool with it,” he said.