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After widespread criticism and mockery, the official YouTube channel for the Olympics has removed the video uploads of the opening ceremony for this year’s games in Paris, France.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the opening performance faced overwhelming ridicule and backlash for numerous instances of controversial, inappropriate, and blasphemous imagery. This included drag queens recreating Christian imagery such as “The Last Supper,” as well as ancient Greek imagery like the god Dionysus. Other imagery included a drag queen holding her own severed head amidst a recreation of the French Revolution.
One man in the “Last Supper” recreation appeared to expose his genitals live on-camera due to his skirt being too short. Other controversial moments included a man in all-blue body paint emerging from the serving tray as the Greek god Dionysus, and a polyamorous trio entering a bedroom together and shutting the door.
The video uploads, originally titled “LET THE GAMES BEGIN | #Paris2024 Opening Ceremony Highlights” and “SPECTACULAR Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony! | Highlights,” now simply display an error message reading “This video is not available.” The ability to comment on the posts has also been disabled.
The first video had garnered over 279,000 views, but only about 2,600 likes. The second video had reached 531,000 views but only 11,000 likes. Both suggest that the number of dislikes on each video were significantly higher than the number of likes.
On Sunday, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) issued a statement claiming that the videos were not deleted, but instead simply geo-blocked in certain regions of the world.
“The IOC has only retained digital rights in certain global markets. Specifically, the IOC does not have digital rights in Europe and the UK, among others,” said the IOC in its statement. “Therefore, moving images from official Olympic venues and areas are geo-blocked for these markets, which is why the videos cannot be viewed. They have not been deleted.”
Addressing the backlash from religious groups, spokeswoman Anne Decamps issued another statement claiming that “clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance.”
“If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry,” she added.
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