Flag blunder cause shame for London organisers

London’s Olympics got off to an embarrassing start Wednesday when North Korea’s women footballers refused to play after a mix-up over their national flag, in one of a series of blunders. Hosts Great Britain had kicked off the sports festival, years in the making and costing billions of dollars, with a 1-0 win over New Zealand as women’s soccer got under way two days before the opening the ceremony. The United States beat France 4-2 and Japan overcame Canada 2-1. But North Korea’s opener against Colombia was held up after their players were pictured next to South Korea’s flag on the big screen at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.
The North Koreans were finally persuaded to take the field and the match, scheduled for 7:45 pm (1845 GMT), began at 8:50 pm. Red-faced organisers were quick to apologise for the howler.
“Today ahead of the women’s football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag,” said a statement from London 2012 organisers. “Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.” The incident — involving two countries still officially at war — ensured a nightmare debut for the 19-day Games, where the hosts’ capabilities are on show as thousands of athletes compete for 302 gold medals until August 12. “Yes, we were angry because our players were introduced as if they are from South Korea, something that may affect us very greatly as you might know,” said North Korea coach Sin Ui-Gun.
“Winning the game cannot compensate this. It is a different matter. We hope there is no repeat in the next matches,” he added. But it was not the only problem on Wednesday. Elsewhere, Team GB sent out an email referring to the Great Britain women’s football team as “England”. And organisers had to offer a refund to diving fans whose view will be partially obscured due to a defect in the purpose-built, wave-shaped Aquatics Centre. Separately, Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked out of the Olympics for a racist tweet which poked fun at Africans living in her country. And athletics’ world governing body said 10 athletes had been barred for doping, including Morocco’s women’s 1500m runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli who failed a test earlier this month.

Flag mix-up simple human mistake, says Rogge

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge on Thursday blamed human error for the flag blunder which drew a protest from North Korea in the women’s football tournament. Responding to a question from North Korean IOC member Chang Ung at the IOC session, Rogge said the incident at Wednesday night’s game in Glasgow was simply an “unfortunate incident.” North Korea refused to take the field for more than an hour after Hampden Park’s giant screen showed images of North Korean players next to the South Korean flag before their opening match with Colombia. The game missed its 7:45 pm (1845 GMT) start after North Korea failed to appear. After it finally kicked off at 8:50 pm, North Korea won 2-0 with a goal in each half. “It was a most unfortunate incident yesterday,” said Rogge. “I can assure you the organising committee will take corrective action and there will be no repeat. There is no political connotation just a simple human mistake.” However, Chang was not satisfied. “Of course the people are angry,” Chang said after the Session had drawn to a close. “If your athlete got a gold medal and the flag of some other country was put up what happens then? Imagine the reaction.” Relations between the two Koreas, still officially at war and sharing the world’s most heavily guarded border, have plunged in recent months over the communist North’s nuclear programme. The countries did not hold talks on reprising 2004’s joint march at the Athens Olympics opening ceremony. In Britain, North Korean officials have blocked South Korean media from covering their athletes’ training sessions, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.