1. Opening Ceremony controversies

While the opening ceremony on July 26 was no doubt a unique and iconic spectacle, it was undoubtedly dogged by controversies and avoidable commotion.

From a decapitated Antoinette to a much-criticised Last Supper parody scene, some parts of the opening ceremony received instantaneous backlash and criticism for causing insult resulting in an official apology from the International Olympic Committee. 

In the end, it proved chaos that was perhaps better left avoided as many involved, particularly, Barbara Butch who was depicted with a halo above her head during the much-maligned Last Supper scene, reported cyberbullying and threats.

The controversies distracted from some otherwise astounding performances and a sprawling opening ceremony which ambitiously became the first to ever take place outside of the traditional stadium setting.

2. The South Korea and North Korea mixup

Although it might be ambitious to hope an event of such a scale as the Olympic Games goes without error, some moments seemed all too clumsy and more at home in a comedy than the largest sporting spectacle in recent years. 

The first apology from the organisers came early on in the opening ceremony when the boat carrying the South Korean athletes appeared on the Seine and was incorrectly introduced in both French and English as “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” aka North Korea.

Given South Korea and North Korea’s tense and fragile relationship, it was one of the more sensitive issues that could and should have been easily avoided.

The International Olympic Committee released a statement apologising saying, “We deeply apologise for the mistake that occurred when introducing the Korean team during the Opening Ceremony broadcast” while IOC President Thomas Bach also called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to apologise after Yoon said that the people of South Korea were “very shocked and embarrassed” by the mistake.

3. One job mishap

That wasn’t the only mishap, however, as a little later that evening Olympic officials were again left red-faced over a very avoidable blunder.

At the end of the three-and-a-half-hour spectacle, the famed five-ring Olympic flag was carried into Trocadero and was then raised as is tradition before the games are declared open, but it was done so upside down.

Rather than the normal image of three rings above and two below, the iconic flag was embarrassingly hoisted up by officials in an obviously incorrect way with the three rings beneath the two.

4. Gender eligibility row

Shortly after the Olympics kicked off a gender eligibility row gained momentum and continues to plague the Paris 2024 Olympic Games well after its conclusion.

Boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting were in the spotlight from the very beginning for being allowed to compete at the Olympics having been disqualified from the 2023 world championship after failing gender eligibility tests by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The two were caught in the middle of a raging debate that, despite its sensitive and complex nature, had people chipping in from all sides. As the two started fighting, while IOC and IBA exchanged verbal blows, more and more weighed in resulting in Khelif filing a lawsuit for cyberbullying against the tirade of abusers that included numerous famous individuals.

5. Sustainability woes

Something else that dogged the Olympics, albeit further from the media frenzy, was its failed attempt to be identified as the most sustainable Olympics ever.

Organisers infamously provided cardboard beds while also making one-third of the food plant-based with a lack of meat options but then needed to ration various foods like eggs and meat when they realised athletes had certain dietary requirements.

The lack of air conditioning in sometimes sweltering conditions was also criticised and at one point with some teams opting for hotels or other solutions. 

Organisers then came under fire for continuing to work with Coca-Cola who have consistently been accused of “greenwashing” as plastic bottles of Fanta, Sprite and Coke were consistently poured into reusable cups during the games.

Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola under scrutiny for “greenwashing”. Environmental protection charity France Nature Environment (FNE) slammed the firm for “unjustified plastic pollution” stating that the US company deserved the “gold medal for greenwashing” during the Olympics.

Health experts also called out organisers for the affiliation with Coca-Cola saying that promoting such unhealthy products has no place in sport.

6. Unfriendly falls and clumsy cameramen

There were inevitably some collisions and falls throughout the Olympics as athletes went head to head across various sports but a particularly chaotic day in the men’s 5000m was marred by bizarre scenes.

In one heat, George Mills of Team GB was brought down by France’s Hugo Hay as the two entered the last stretch and consequently finished 30 seconds after the leader. The two had an ugly moment after the race exchanging heated words over what happened.

“I was about to kick into the straight and boom: The French lad took me down,” said Mills. “I was like, ‘Nobody in this field can run away from me at this pace’, so I was just sitting, waiting, biding my time, gonna kick off the home straight then bang, hit the deck. What can you do?”

In the other 5000m heat, a similar scenario nearly unfolded just 10 minutes into the race as an absentminded cameraman strolled across the track requiring the athletes to dart around him to avoid a tumble.

7. Australia’s bizarre breakdancing saga

Of the sports to debut at the Paris Olympics, breaking was by far the most unpredictable. Few knew what to expect and few would have predicted anything like what has followed Australia’s bizarre breaking performance after it went viral for all the wrong reasons.

36-year-old academic Rachel Gunn, who goes by Raygun in breaking competitions, said she knew she wouldn’t be able to compete with other dancers and so had to mix up her moves and be more creative.

The results were a strange concoction of dance moves involving imitating a kangaroo, pretending to swim, and rolling around on the floor as Australia’s top-ranked breakdance finished the competition in 16th losing every one of her three round-robin bouts 2-0 for a combined score of 54-0.

A petition gathering more than 55,000 signatures has since called Gunn and Australia’s Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares to apologise for “attempting to gaslight the public and undermining the efforts of genuine athletes.”

The petition, however, despite its numbers, has been called bullying and Rachel Gunn has since taken to social media to call out online hate and ask for privacy as teammates and others jump to her defence.

Breakdancing will not be returning for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, probably for the best.

8. Twists and turns in the Gymnastics scoring

Another incident that marred the Olympics was the scoring of the women’s floor exercise final event. Initially, Jordan Chiles of the United States came 5th missing out on her first-ever medal with Romania’s Ana Barbosu securing bronze and celebrating wildly with the Romanian Flag.

Team US coaches then challenged the difficulty score Chiles received and earned her an extra 0.1 points which was enough to slip into third place and oust Barbosu who left the arena in tears. Biles then joined Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade in the medal positions to create what was the first time Black athletes had won all three spots on the podium.

The Romanian Gymnastics Association then challenged this revision taking it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on the basis that the US coaches broke the rules by taking more than a minute to request the review. The challenge was accepted, the revision voided and third place went back to Romania’s Ana Barbosu.

Team USA returned with another appeal and submitted proof that US coaches did not breach the time limit for review but it was dismissed.

9. Fine margins spoil gold

Vinesh Phogat made history for India at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games when she won her semi-final of the women’s wrestling freestyle 50kg to become the first woman wrestler to reach an Olympic final.

Just a matter of hours before she was to take on Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States, she was disqualified for weighing in 100 grams overweight and was placed last as a result, missing out on medals altogether.

“Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning,” said the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in a statement.

“The marginal discrepancy of 100 grams and the resultant consequences has a profound impact, not only in terms of Vinesh’s career but also raises serious questions about ambiguous rules and their interpretation”, it continued.

“The IOA firmly believes that the total disqualification of an athlete for such a weight infraction on the second of two days warrants a deeper examination. Our legal representatives had duly brought this out in their submissions before the Sole Arbitrator,” the IOA said in its release.

10. Dark waters and sick athletes

Another controversy that polluted the games was that of the Seine River. France reportedly spent €1.4 billion in an attempt to make the Seine safe to swim in but ultimately failed.

Events were consistently scrapped due to unsafe levels of pollution and after they eventually competed several athletes fell ill.

35-year-old Belgian triathlete Claire Michel was hospitalised with an E. coli infection the day after competing in a chaotic triathlon event while Belgian competitor Jolien Vermeylen told reporters “While swimming under the bridge, I felt things and saw things that you shouldn’t think about too much.”

Ominous reports followed and it began getting all too vicariously visceral when Bettina Fabian of Hungary said “I saw some brown things; I hope it’s not what I thought it was.”

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