Officials for the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games have issued an apology following the backlash to Friday's Opening Ceremony.
With viewers watching from around the world, the Opening Ceremony for any Olympic Games is often one of the most anticipated television events of the year.
But despite ferrying 6,800 athletes down the River Seine and bring out music legend Celine Dion, the reception was far from what the organisers were hoping for.
Many viewers watching on Friday didn't just feel let down, but outright offended by what they saw.
Some claimed the imagery featured during the Opening Ceremony was "satanic", with Donald Trump Jr. being one of the most high-profile critics of the show.
"My mom was an Olympian (Czech Natl Ski Team), and as a kid we would be excited for weeks leading up to the games," Trump Jr. wrote on X. "Now with the ever predictable (& seemingly satanic to me) drag queen opening ceremonies and never ending bs, no one I know even thinks about it beyond maybe watching some highlights."
Trump Jr. accused officials of pushing "leftist insanity".
Other social media users and religious groups branded the ceremony an "attack on Christianity" and a "blasphemous" attack on "Christian values"
With many people branding Paris' Opening Ceremony the "worst in Olympics history", Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps has spoken out.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday (July 28), Descamps said: "Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group."
"If people have taken any offense, we are of course really, really sorry," Descamps added, per News.com.au.
One particular moment that was widely slammed was when a group of performers - including some drag queens - were positioned at a long table, before singer Phillippe Katerine appeared dressed as Dionysus - the ancient Greek god of wine, winemaking, grape cultivation, fertility, ritual madness, theater, and religious ecstasy.
However, some viewers believed the scene was a mockery of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which depicts Jesus with the Twelve Apostles.
Thomas Jolly, lead choreographer of the ceremony, has also spoken out, stating that his intention was never to mirror the famous painting.
"The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus,” Jolly told the BFM channel on Sunday.
"You’ll never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone. I wanted a ceremony that brings people together, that reconciles, but also a ceremony that affirms our Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity," Jolly added.
And, referring specifically to the segment that portrayed a beheaded Marie Antoinette, Jolly also affirmed: "Certainly we were not glorifying this instrument of death which is the guillotine."
With the Olympic Summer Games set to continue until August 11, we can now just sit back and enjoy the incredible athletes perform... and wait with bated breath for the Closing Ceremony.
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