Paris 2024 organiser Anne Descamps has apologised for any offence caused by religious depictions during the opening ceremony.
Friday’s showpiece has drawn some criticism for a banquet scene where an actor playing Greek god Dionysus took centre stage on a table with drag queens, which has been interpreted to resemble Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting.
Some religious groups condemned the ceremony, including the Catholic Church in France who said it included ‘scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity’.
In a press conference on Sunday, Descamps apologised for any offence caused and insisted that the ceremony intended to ‘celebrate community tolerance’.
‘Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,’ she said. On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved, if people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry.’
This scene featuring drag queens appearing to depict The Last Supper caused controversy during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Friday night
Paris 2024 Olympics communications director Anne Descamps pictured at a press conference
The International Olympic Committee later said in a statement: ‘The IOC has taken note of and welcomes the clarification given by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee regarding the Opening Ceremony.
‘In the daily press briefing, the Organising Committee said that there was never any intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief.
‘They reiterated that their intention with the Opening Ceremony was always to celebrate community and tolerance. The Organising Committee also said that if anyone was offended by certain scenes, this was completely unintentional and they were sorry.’
Sunday’s apology came after thousands of social media users threatened to boycott the Paris Games because of the opening ceremony.
Enraged viewers took to X (formely Twitter) where ‘#boycottOlympics’ and ‘#boycottParis2024’ were seen trending over the course of the following day.
The appearance of a ‘naked blue man’ among a scene likened to the Last Supper angered many watching, especially Christians.
One wrote: ‘What a disgraceful opening to the 2024 Olympics #BoycottOlympics.’
Another declared they ‘didn’t even care about the Olympics’ but were now ‘100 per cent boycotting’.
A singing performer painted blue depicted the Greek god Dionysus during Friday’s ceremony
But reverend Benjamin Cremer, based in the US, later shared a post that dispelled the allegation that the controversial scene featuring drag queens was mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s classic painting and therefore Christianity.
Cremer’s post read: ‘It was a representation of the event called the Feast of Dionysus. Greek God of festivity and feasting and ritual and theatre.’
‘The Olympics are from Greek culture and tradition. French culture is deeply rooted in feasting and festivity and performing arts.’
According to Cremer’s theory, the scene depicted in the opening ceremony was based on a painting called ‘Feast of the Gods’ by Johann Rottenhammer and Jan Bruegel, circa 1602.
