The Olympics officially got underway with the Opening Ceremonies in Paris on Friday. However, things quickly went awry during one of the most crucial moments when the flag was raised upside down.
Hopefully the awkward blunder was not a bad omen for the rest of the Games!
The flag for the Olympics was created in 1913 under the guidance of Baron de Coubertin of France and was first hoisted at the 1914 Pan-Egyptian Games in Alexandria, Egypt. Its five rings represent the five inhabited continents of the world (Africa, Europe, Asia, America, and Oceania) and its colors (black red, green, yellow, white and blue) represented the colors of ever competing country’s flag at the time.
“The six colours [including the flag’s white background] combined in this way reproduce the colours of every country without exception. The blue and yellow of Sweden, the blue and white of Greece, the tricolour flags of France, United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Hungary, and the yellow and red of Spain are included, as are the innovative flags of Brazil and Australia, and those of ancient Japan and modern China. This, truly, is an international emblem.”
— 1913 edition of the Olympic Revue
Three rings are on the top row: blue, black and red. Two rings are below: yellow and green.
Not on Friday!
It was accidentally flipped upside down as it was raised up the flag pole. Nobody noticed before it was way too late and there was no way to subtly fix the error.
Hymne olympique pic.twitter.com/nFkuWJOCF4
— Info France 2 (@infofrance2) July 26, 2024
The flag reached the top of the pole in reverse.
Oops!
We must collectively hope that this is not an indication of what is to come over the next 16 days. Hanging a flag upside down is either a sign of protest or distress. Neither of those two things would be good and, honestly, neither of those two things are out of the realm of possibility.
Let’s stay positive and laugh at Paris’ blunder instead of imagining all of the things that could go wrong. The Parisians had the eyes of the world upon them and they managed to hang the Olympic flag upside down. They literally had one job and practiced that singular moment on multiple occasions over the last few weeks just to get it completely wrong. That’s pretty embarrassing!