During South Sudan’s opening men’s basketball game against Puerto Rico at the Paris Olympics, the wrong national anthem was played.
Instead of South Sudan’s anthem, the Sudanese anthem was broadcast, leading to boos from the crowd at the Pierre Mauroy stadium.
The correct anthem was played after a brief pause, followed by applause from the audience.
The Olympic organizers issued an apology for the “human error.” South Sudan’s player Majok Deng expressed disappointment, calling the mix-up “disrespectful.”
He stated, “They [the organizers] have to be better because this is the biggest stage, and you know that South Sudan is playing.
There’s no way you can get that wrong by playing a different anthem. It’s disrespectful.”
Despite the mistake, Deng noted, “Obviously, nobody’s perfect. They made a mistake. They played it at the end, and we moved on.”
The Paris 2024 organizers also apologized in a statement, acknowledging the seriousness of the error. “We fully understand the gravity of the mistake,” the statement read.
This incident marks the second apology from the organizers for a similar error.
During the opening ceremony, South Korean athletes were mistakenly introduced as from the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” North Korea’s official name.
South Sudan’s basketball team went on to win their match against Puerto Rico 90-79.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is competing in the Olympics for the first time this year.
The team had recently come close to an upset against the United States in an exhibition game, losing by just one point in a dramatic finish.
Source-BBC
