The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday apologized for South Korea’s delegation of athletes being introduced as from rival North Korea during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open after a soaking wet ceremony in which athletes were cheered by a crowd along the Seine, dancers took to the roofs of Paris and Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song.
However, during the boat parade, an announcer introduced South Korea’s team as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” — the official name of North Korea — in French and English.
Photo: AFP
The announcer used the same introduction when the North Korean delegation passed.
The IOC wrote on X that the incident was a mistake and offered “a deep apology.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday told IOC president Thomas Bach that mistakes such as that should not be repeated and conveyed his wish for a successful Olympic Games, his office said yesterday.
The two spoke by telephone. Bach conveyed an apology over the incident and Yoon said the people of South Korea, which has hosted summer and winter Olympic Games, were surprised and baffled, Yoon’s office said.
Meanwhile, during Friday’s ceremony France’s three-time Olympic gold medalists Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner lit the Olympic cauldron, suspended on a hot-air balloon, before Canada’s Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf’s Hymn to Love, in her first public performance in years, drawing huge cheers from the crowd.
The 30m high balloon carrying a 7m diameter ring of fire took to the air and hovered dozens of meters above the ground.
It would be in the air from sunset until 2am every day during the Games, organizers said.
“We are so proud of this show, I’m so proud that sport and culture were celebrated in such a fantastic manner tonight, it was a first and the result was fantastic despite the rain,” Paris 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee president Tony Estanguet told reporters.
A fleet of barges took the competitors on a 6km stretch of the river alongside some of the French capital’s most famous landmarks, as performers recreated some of the sports to be showcased in the Games on floating platforms.
It was the first time that an opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, adding to the headaches for a vast security operation, just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed TGV rail network caused travel chaos across France.
More than 10,500 athletes are to compete at the Olympics, 100 years since Paris last staged the Games. Competition started on Wednesday and the first of the 329 gold medals was awarded yesterday.
As the show started, a giant plume of blue, white and red smoke, resembling the French flag, was sent high above a bridge over the Seine as part of an event that included many postcard-like depictions of France, including a huge cancan line performed by Moulin Rouge dancers on the banks.
A more modern image of the country was on display when French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French female singer in the world, sang some of her biggest hits, accompanied by the French Republican Guard’s army choir.
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