7 embarrassing incidents at London Olympics
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 4, 2012
The ongoing London Olympic Games have been dogged with a string of mishaps, gaffes and embarrassing moments. Some seem to be incredible, and some bothered both the athletes and audience.
China's national flag placed at bottom
China's national flag was raised lower than South Korea's at the awards ceremony after the men's 200-meter freestyle, despite the fact that Chinese athlete Sun Yang and South Korea's Park Tae-hwan tied for second in the final. The gaffe annoyed Chinese audiences greatly, especially when some found that the flags of South Korea and Japan were raised in parallel after they tied for third in the men's 66kg final judo competition. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stated that there's not any inadequacy, explaining that in cases involving a tie, national flags can be placed unparallel when there's no enough room, with the higher determined by the first initial of the athletes' last name.
South Korea's flag placed mistakenly ahead of North Korea's women footballers
North Korea's women football team refused to play the match with Colombia prior to the Games' opening ceremony in protest against the blunder that South Korea's national flag was mistakenly placed ahead of the names of their players on the electronic scoreboard at Hampden Park. The match was delayed for more than an hour. The Games' organizer LOCOG, as well as UK's Prime Minister David Cameron, were then forced to apologize for this obvious mistake, promising that steps will be taken to ensure this [mix-up of national flags] does not happen again.
Tunisian athlete missed medal due to coach's math errors
Tunisian weightlifter Khalil El-Maoui was ranked 2nd after the snatch session during the men's 56kg competition on July 30. Yet the promising contestant failed in his first lift of the 158 kg entry weight submitted by his coach mistakenly, and was forced out of the competition for being unable to sustain higher weight requirements in further attempts. He said he should have started lifting at 148kg, but his coach submitted 158kg by mistake.
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