If you have had your phone connected to the internet over the weekend, you might have noticed that alot of people are angry at the organizers of the ongoing 2024 Olympic Games being held in Paris, France.
This major outrage that has been going on for some days now stems majorly from the opening ceremony, a tradition that happens in every Olympics edition to mark the official start of the multi-sport events. Like every host nation, France got to present a visually and musically huge presentation as a welcome to all the guests and athletes.
Well, the presentation that involved parody scenes of events like ‘The Last Supper’ caused controversy as followers of the Christian faith across the world saw it as a mockery of the religion and labeling it as blasphemous. The scene involved drag queens and other performers recreating it as depicted in the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci.
The criticism came from various factions including the French Catholic Church’s conference, Russia, Egypt, etc. The Anglican Communion in Egypt expressed its “deep regret” on Sunday and also said that the opening ceremony could cause the IOC to lose its distinctive sporting identity and its humanitarian message.” Figures like Elon Musk also expressed their disappointment.
The anger was even expressed by Kenyans on platforms like X who felt that the presentation was generally offensive to the Christian faith.
Scores of people online have called for the boycott of the Olympics and demanded for an apology from the event’s organisers.
This was shortly followed by a response from the organisers as the full video of the presentation was pulled down from the Olympics’ official YouTube page due to growing backlash in the comments section.
This has gone even further as one of the major sponsors, US-based telecommunications company C Spire released a statement confirming that it has pulled out its ads for the Olympics.
The Paris 2024 Olympics organisers did follow up with an apology to the public. This was expressed by the event’s spokesperson Anne Descamps stating that “there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group”.
On the other hand, the presentation’s director Thomas Jolly distanced the scene from any “Last Supper” parallels stating that the motive behind the act was to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.
