All the 2024 Olympic Controversies Shadowing the Competition in Paris
It was never going to be all fun and games at the 2024 Olympics.
And not just because, for every podium boasting an event's gold, silver and bronze medalists, there are exponentially more athletes not on that podium.
Or, when it came to the shocking ending to the women's floor exercise final, Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu thought she was on the podium, only to be knocked off by a twist of human error that—while a wrong was ultimately righted for Jordan Chiles—dashed her medal dreams.
"I decided not to attend the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, following the scandalous situation in the gymnastics, where our athletes were treated in an absolutely dishonorable manner," Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu wrote on Facebook in response. "To withdraw a medal earned for honest work on the basis of an appeal is totally unacceptable!"
Obviously, he continued, "somewhere in the system of organizing this competition, something is wrong."
And he's not the only head of state who's been incensed by a perceived slight during these Games. Nor is Barbosu the only athlete to think she was in, only to end up being out. (Though Ciolacu vowed she would still be treated as an Olympic medalist in her home country, "including in terms of the prizes.")
Ultimately, though the excitement and joy radiating from Paris has been palpable around the globe, there's no such thing as an Olympics unfolding without controversy.
Whether it's the Internet-fueled kind whipped up by a comment going viral or a larger issue—such as a soccer coach being kicked off the team over spying allegations or a river that's only sometimes safe to swim in—these Summer Games have hosted their share of drama.
Catch up with all the controversies that have erupted during the 2024 Paris Olympics so far:
The 2024 Olympics had barely begun when Bev Priestman, head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team, was removed from her post by Canada Soccer after her staff was accused of using drones to spy on the New Zealand team ahead of their group stage match.
"Additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games," Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue said in a July 25 statement explaining the decision. "In light of these new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the decision to suspend…Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and until the completion of our recently announced independent external review."
Priestman apologized, saying in a statement, "I am absolutely heartbroken for the players, and I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the impact this situation has had on all of them."
The team, which won gold in Tokyo, is "a group of people who care very much about sportsmanship and integrity," she continued. "As the leader of the team on the field, I want to take accountability, and I plan to fully co-operate with the [Canadian Soccer Association] investigation."
As the boat carrying athletes from South Korea came into view during the July 26 Opening Ceremony, they were incorrectly announced in both French and English as being from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea—which is North Korea.
South Korea, meanwhile, is the Republic of Korea.
In a July 27 statement, the International Olympic Committee noted, "We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the Korean team during the Opening Ceremony broadcast."
IOC President Thomas Bach also called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to apologize, per the chief executive's office, which relayed that Yoon told Bach the people of South Korea were "very shocked and embarrassed" by the mistake. An IOC spokesperson called the error an "operational mistake" that was "clearly deeply regrettable."
Parade order is determined alphabetically according to the host nation's language—minus Greece, which always goes first as the home of the first Olympics, and the host nation goes last. South Korea was the 48th country in the Parade of Nations, while North Korea was 153rd.
British commentator Bob Ballard was pulled from Eurostar's Olympics coverage for making a remark that was widely derided as sexist after Australian swimmers Mollie O'Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris won gold in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
"Well, the women just finishing off," Ballard said following the race. "You know what women are like…hanging around, doing their makeup."
His co-commentator Lizzie Simmonds replied, "Outrageous, Bob. Some of the men are doing that as well."
Calling his comment "inappropriate," Eurostar said in a July 29 statement Ballard had been removed with "immediate effect" from further coverage.
The veteran sportscaster promptly apologized.
"The comments I made during the Australian freestyle relay victory ceremony on Saturday have caused some offence," he wrote on X. "It was never my intention to upset or belittle anyone and, if I did, I apologise. I am a massive advocate of women’s sport."
After speculation that a too-shallow pool inside La Defense Arena was responsible for slower-than-expected times in swimming, the athletes torpedoed the idea that the water wasn't deep enough to smash records.
"I think it's totally a myth," Team USA's Regan Smith, who swam away from Paris with five medals, told NBCOlympics.com after she and Gretchen Walsh, Lilly King and Torri Huske set a new world record in the women's 4x100-meter medley. "I think at first people were very aware of [the lack of new records]… So, I think that caused some chatter, like, 'Oh, is it the pool that's doing this?' But I think as the meet went on, people got used to it, and then I think they got more comfortable with it, and then we started seeing some really fast swims."
Added four-time medalist Walsh, "I think much of what the Olympics is, and what it represents, makes any pool that it's at feel kind of slow. Because you have so much pressure on yourself that it is hard at your 100 percent best."
Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira was sent home after, according to the Brazilian Olympic Committee, she committed two "acts of indiscipline": She left the Olympic Village with boyfriend/teammate Gabriel Santos without permission, the BOC said, after acting "in a disrespectful and aggressive manner" in response to a "technical decision made by the Brazilian Swimming Team committee" regarding the 4x100m freestyle relay.
In a video titled "How a communication failure destroyed my Olympic dream," Vieira lamented what happened but said, "everything is going to be solved at the right time."
The Paraguayan Olympic Committee asked swimmer Luana Alonso to leave the Games, alleging in a statement that she had created an "inappropriate atmosphere at the Heart of Team Paraguay."
"We thank her for proceeding as instructed," the statement continued, "as it was of her own free will that she did not spend the night in the Athletes' Village."
The Southern Methodist University student had seemingly already returned to Texas when she wrote on Instagram Story (translated from Spanish) Aug. 5, "I just wanted to make it clear that I was never removed or expelled from anywhere, stop spreading false information. I don’t want to give any statement but I’m not going to let lies affect me either."
Simone Biles had already let it be known what she thought of Tokyo teammate MyKayla Skinner's criticism of the U.S. gymnastics team selected to go to Paris—and Skinner had apologized for saying in a since-deleted video that "the talent and the depth just isn't like what it used to be" and that "obviously a lot of girls don't work as hard."
But after the 2024 squad won team gold, Biles captioned a photo of the athletes, "Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions"—an apparent jab at Skinner's original comment.
On Aug. 6, Skinner reiterated in an Instagram video that she had "poorly" articulated her original point. But, she added, the cyberbullying she and her family had been subject to—fallout from her cyberfeud with Biles—had gotten out of hand.
She pleaded with the seven-time gold medalist "to please put a stop to this. Please ask your followers to stop."
Neither Biles nor Suni Lee medaled in beam this year after both gymnasts fell off the apparatus during their final routines.
Afterward, Biles commented on the strangely quiet environment during their penultimate event in Paris.
"It was really weird and awkward," the athlete, who earned bronze on beam in Tokyo, told the Associated Press. "We've asked several times if we can have some music, or some background noise. I'm not really sure what happened there, but yeah, not our favorite. None of us liked it."
In response to the GOAT's complaint, an International Gymnastics Federation said the atmosphere was "part of the sport presentation plan at Paris 2024."
Lee noted that "the pressure was definitely on" and "a lot of people were definitely feeling it."
She wondered if it was so quiet the nearby photographers could hear her breathing.
"It adds to the stress," Lee said, "just because it’s like you, yes, you're the only one up there. So I was feeling the pressure.”
Jordan Chiles seemingly finished out of the running for a medal when she completed her floor exercise final routine and received a score of 13.666, Romania's Ana Barbosu ahead of her in third place with a score of 13.700.
But after Team USA filed a score inquiry on Chiles' behalf and her performance was further reviewed by the judges, her start value was increased by one-tenth of a point. As a result, her score was subsequently bumped up to 13.766. Meaning, she got the bronze and Barbosu—who was already waving her country's flag in celebration—left the arena in tears.
Afterward, Barbosu posted a video of herself competing and wrote, "Thank you to everyone who encouraged me before, during, and after the competition."
Medal adjustments haven't been confined to the gymnastics arena.
Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon was initially disqualified for seeming to jostle Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia during the women's 5,000 meters at the Stade de France on Aug. 5, negating her second-place finish.
"I have never seen anything like that, in an Olympic final that went on for so long," commentator Kara Goucher, a two-time Olympian, said on the broadcast, noting that the two women also appeared to exchange heated words. "You see a little bit of elbow, you see a little bit of frustration, but that was many strides and scolding."
It wasn't until the wee hours of Aug. 6 that Kipyegon found out her silver medal had been reinstated. The Olympic Jury of Appeal ruled that, while there had been "significant contact" between her and Tsegay, "the incident did not warrant a disqualification."
With that, Italy's Nadia Battocletti—the fourth-place finisher bumped into bronze position by the disqualification—was re-relegated to fourth.
Two athletes' hopes of a medal were dashed when they unwittingly broke rules mid-swim, meaning they didn't even know they were out until they finished their races.
Great Britain's Luke Greenbank finished first in his 200-meter backstroke heat but was disqualified for staying underwater for further than the maximum 15 meters after first diving in.
"Win or lose I’ve always been my own harshest critic but sometimes you’ve just got to take it as it comes," he wrote on Instagram Aug. 1. "I can take pride in the fact that I know I was in great shape coming into these games after a tough few years, but this will motivate me to come back stronger."
A technical error also knocked Alex Walsh off the 200-meter individual medley podium after she finished in the bronze position. As she approached the wall during the last leg of her backstroke, she made an illegal turn by starting to flip out of position before she tapped the wall and launched into her breaststroke.
"Still proud," Walsh wrote on Instagram Aug. 6, thanking her supporters a few days after the race. "Despite the DQ, this Olympics has been an experience that has left me feeling happy and fulfilled, and I will cherish that forever. After all, everything happens for a reason and there is so much more to be excited about for me in this sport."
Despite $1.53 billion having been budgeted to clean up the perennially polluted Seine, reports swirled for months leading up to the Paris Games about whether it would be safe enough to hold the swimming leg of the triathlons and the 10,000-meter marathons in the river.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a swim July 17 and declared France's most famous body of water good to go—but it's been kind of a s--t show since the Olympics began.
On Monday, July 29, swims for the triathletes to familiarize themselves with the Seine were canceled, officials citing poor water quality levels caused by run-off from the weekend's heavy rains (which noticeably started during the July 26 Opening Ceremony).
The men's triathlon was then postponed a day and rescheduled to follow the women's event on July 31 after organizers deemed bacteria levels too high for a safe swim.
Both triathlons were held July 31, day-of tests finding that E. coli and intestinal enterococci levels were low enough to qualify the water as "excellent quality," per the European Union's Bathing Water Directive.
But speculation that the water wasn't safe resumed after two athletes who competed in the triathlon dropped out of the mixed-relay competition, citing respective illnesses (neither of which have been definitively linked to swimming in the Seine).
The women's and men's 10,000 meters are still scheduled for Aug. 8 and 9, but practices were canceled Aug. 6 after tests showed bacteria levels were once again too high.