Paris Olympics: IOC apologises to South Korea over opening ceremony gaffe
Paris: The beautiful opening ceremony that took place at the Seine River on Friday has been overshadowed by a mistake made when the South Korean contingent were set to be introduced.
The 143-member team were introduced as North Korea, with whom the country has had very sour relationships with, using their official name “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
Following the incident, an IOC spokesperson ‘apologised wholeheartedly’ for the regrettable incident.
“We are deeply regrettable and we apologise wholeheartedly. We have issued a statement last night so we made it very clear from the IOC that an operational mistake was made, we can only apologize. In an evening with so many moving parts that mistake was made and we apologize to the people of the Republic of Korea for that error,” said IOC Spokesperson Mark Adams to reporters.
“We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony,” read the statement by the IOC on X.
South Korea’s sports ministry “expressed regret” over the “announcement during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the South Korean delegation was introduced as the North Korean team,” through a statement and announced their intentions of holding a meeting between second vice sports minister Jang Mi-ran, a 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion and IOC chief Thomas Bach to discuss the matter.