The Olympic Games Paris 2024 made 1 of the weirdest blunders on the penultimate day of the sports event after the organisers raised the wrong flag during the medal presentation ceremony of the men’s 92kg (heavyweight) boxing category.
During the ceremony, the Thai flag was raised among the 2 bronze medallists in the category.
There’s 1 glaring problem though. The bronze medallists are from Tajikistan and Spain, not from Thailand. Worse, Thailand DIDN’T even compete in the category!
Thailand’s flag was raised by organisers instead of Tajikistan’s during the Olympic boxing medal presentation
Shared by Redditor u/VillageOfMalo on the r/Olympics subreddit, a photo of the medal presentation ceremony shows 4 flags being raised, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Spain.
In the category, Uzbekistan’s Lazizbek Mullojonov won gold after defeating Azerbaijan’s Loren Berto Alfonso Dominguez in the final.
Meanwhile, the bronze medal was given to the 2 boxers who lost in the semi-finals, Spain’s Enmanuel Reyes and Tajikistan’s Davlat Boltaev.
As reported by the Bangkok Post, the absence of the Tajikistan flag left the athletes and the crowd visibly confused.
Moreover, Boltaev appeared particularly bewildered as his nation’s flag wasn’t raised despite him winning bronze.
Despite the faux pas, the medal presentation ceremony went on smoothly, though the organisers have yet to address the mix-up in a statement.
How the mix-up potentially happened
In the comments section of the Reddit post, 1 Redditor offered a plausible theory as to how the error came to be.
The Redditor said that the country code of Tajikistan is ‘TJ’, while Thailand’s is ‘TH’. Given that the alphabets H and J are situated right beside each other on the keyboard, someone might have mixed up the 2 flags.
However, the Redditor stressed that it was such an unprofessional error and shouldn’t have happened.
So, what do you guys think of this mix-up? Have you witnessed anything like this before? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
Also read: Olympic Boxing Gold Medallist Imane Khelif Files Legal Action Against Harrassments About Her Gender
