After such a lavish, impressive and electrifying opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, we were inclined to turn a blind eye to the little gaffes that are invariably present - noticed or not.
But not for this one! Paris opened its Olympic Games with a flag... upside down, bTV reported.
The five interlocking circles were erected upside down in front of the Eiffel Tower. This can be seen with the naked eye from the photos.
The big spectacle was washed out by the weather, the display was cringe & to top it all off the Olympic flag was hoisted upside down at the zenith of it all
— Aaron Rankin (@Aaron_R_Rankin) July 26, 2024
This event is like a microcosm of modern France, an utter shamblespic.twitter.com/eZeyCrIXRQ
The Olympic flag was brought by Sequana - the goddess of the river Seine. She galloped down it, on horseback, in impressive armor, and finally presented the flag to four representatives of the French army and law enforcement who raised it.
But the three circles - blue, black and red - were at the bottom, and the two - yellow and green - were at the top. At first, the blunder was not noticed, mainly because of the rain. During the entire ceremony, it rained around the Seine River, and the wet fabric did not unfold as everyone expected.
After that, however, fans on social networks did not fail to criticize the organizers. "A whole year of rehearsals and finally an inverted flag", "How many soldiers does it take to raise a flag correctly?!" were among the comments. In fact, it was the part with the goddess Sequana that was one of the most impressive of the show. Florian Issert of the French National Gendarmerie stepped into her role. For the first time, sports fans saw an Olympic opening ceremony outside the stadium. 300,000 had taken seats around the river Seine, and more than 1.5 billion people watched the show in front of screens around the world.