Amid escalating severe criticism, the official video of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics has been removed from the tournament's YouTube account, while videos related to previous Olympic events remain available for viewing. This action followed strong backlash against the ceremony, which included many controversial performances and mistakes, such as raising the Olympic flag upside down and mistakenly referring to the South Korean team as the North Korean team.
Additionally, the weather conditions and heavy rain led many to leave the global event early. Upon searching, full versions of the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics can still be found, but not the ceremony that occurred just two days ago.
Official entities did not provide any reason for this removal, and the International Olympic Committee and the organizers of the Paris Olympics did not respond to requests for comments from the British newspaper "Daily Mail." The American newspaper "The New York Times" described the ceremony as a "bloated spectacle," while the "New York Post" labeled the event as "boring, disjointed, and unplanned."
The "Last Supper" Controversy
The most controversial part of the opening ceremony, held on Friday, caused outrage in France and beyond when a famous painting was used in a manner that some found strange. Dancers mimicked Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper," but the performance included references to the LGBTQ+ community, which provoked backlash from some segments of the French right, as well as international reactions.
The performance featured dancers representing the transgender community, which many considered an inappropriate introduction of this contentious issue into the world’s largest sporting event, with numerous individuals viewing the performance as "offensive." In this context, the presentation was described as "a complete lack of respect for one of the most famous paintings in the world."
