She lost because she said 'seven swans ARE swimming'. There is no issue with how she said swimming, she said ARE (which did not fit) when it should have be A. She got caught out fair and square!
Well that's an odd way to pronounce 'A', pronouncing it 'ah' which is easily misheard into 'are'. She said 'ah-swimming' or 'are-swimming', been listening to that segment several times.
That's how a is pronounced in English spoken language. It's only called 'ay' (to rhyme with hay) as its name.
"A" can be either pronounced with a long sound ("ay") or a short sound ("uh"/"ah.") Eitherway I don't see how you heard "ah" and heard the "r" sound in there to get "are."
I never say "ay" unless I'm saying the letter itself for some obscure reason that never comes up. "ay" sounds too much like "eh" and that's just a stupid word. It's always "ah" for me.
It's irrelevant anyway because he specifically states why he is disallowing it, and it was because of the G.