The several hour-long OS opening ceremony was dominated by pomp and circumstance – but a couple of mistakes became topics of conversation afterwards.
During the dignified parade, South Korea was presented as North Korea, and when the ceremony was finally supposed to conclude with the flag-raising, it didn't quite go as planned.
The white flag with its characteristic five rings was delivered by a knight on a metal horse, attached to a boat, which seemed to fly along the Seine's dark waters. Later, the mechanical horse was replaced by a real horse, and the final stretch was carried by the silver-clad rider.
But when it was finally time to raise the flag, something went a bit wrong – it went up upside down.
The yellow and green rings that are supposed to be at the bottom ended up at the top – something that sharp-eyed social media users quickly pointed out.
"If you're having a bad day at work, it could have been worse. You could have been the flag team that raised the Olympic flag upside down during the opening ceremony", writes a person on X.
Earlier during the opening ceremony, another mistake occurred. When the South Korean delegation sailed on the Seine, they were introduced with the official name for North Korea, first in French and then in English, reports AFP. They were presented as the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" instead of the "Republic of Korea".
The mistake sparked discontent. South Korea's sports minister expressed "regret" over the incident in a statement, and the deputy sports minister has requested a meeting with the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The IOC later apologized for the blunder. "We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when we presented the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony", wrote the IOC in a post on its official Korean-language X account.
