What happened to the Olympics being a unifying force? Marianne Rozario reflects on recent controversies at the Olympic opening ceremony. 01/08/2024

I love the Olympics. As a child, I had a blue–tacked piece of paper on my bedroom wall tallying up the GB team medals as they came in. At the London 2012 Olympics, I was an over–enthusiastic awe–struck Games Maker. There is something about the spirit of the Olympics that draws you in – perhaps it’s the sense of watching athletes achieve the unachievable, or the sense of solidarity, or the ability of sport to unite.  

Also, in the dining room of my childhood home was Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. As an image, statue or icon, da Vinci’s representation of the Last Supper is a household item in Catholic homes. To this day, it’s the painting I stare at when having breakfast in the morning or dinner at home, a treasured statue left to me by my grandmother, the present I often give as a wedding gift. The image or icon is not sacred of course, but what it represents is held as sacred by Christians worldwide, perhaps more so for Catholics, who see it as the portrayal of the first Mass instituted by Christ at the Last Supper. For Catholics and the Orthodox, the Holy Mass is the highest form of worship whereby Christ is literally present in the form of the Eucharist. 

It feels like what I hold as sacred is now being pitted divisively against my childhood love of the Olympics. 

I was so excited to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics begin this week. But after what has been received by many to be the visible ridiculing of Christianity in the opening ceremony, I am left wondering where that spirit of the Olympics has gone.  

I wanted to write a piece which highlighted the positive relationship between Christianity and sport which goes a long way back. It is known that St. Paul used sports metaphors to explain the Christian life to the Gentiles, that St. Thomas Aquinas spoke of a “virtue about games”, and that lay Catholics played games and sports on feast days. I wanted to showcase athletes, from the Olympics and beyond, displaying their Christian faith. Such as the young England football players Rashford, Saka and Sterling, or tennis players like Novak Djokovic or Emma Raducanu who both wear a pendant cross, or athletes with Christian tattoos such as Adam Peaty and Lewis Hamilton. But this is not the article I am writing today. 

Thus far, the relationship between Christianity and sport in this Olympic Games has been overshadowed, replaced with one that – to me – mocks what Christians hold as sacred. The Organising Committee of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games presented to the 28.6 million viewers of the opening ceremony, what was taken by many as, a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper. It was reenacted by drag queens and dancers wearing sexualised costumes and posing provocatively portraying the apostles, and a DJ and LGBTQI+ activist sitting in the place of Christ wearing a halo, or monstrance or mitre–like silver crown, followed by a near naked man painted in blue surrounded by fruit spread out along what is perceived as the Last Supper table depicting “the Greek God Dionysus”. This felt different from other depictions of the painting. For me, it crossed a line when it intentionally used over–sexualised content to desecrate something Christians hold as sacred in the name of promoting a particular worldview.  

There has been an outcry of response from the Christian world. The French Catholic Bishops Conference stated that the opening ceremony “included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore.” Bishops in Malta, Germany, Australia, and the USA – to name a few – have created a wave of reactions and denunciations. The Coptic Orthodox Bishops of North America have signed and expressed their “profound dismay and condemnation” as well as sorrow displayed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Members of other religious traditions too have expressed their solidarity with the Christian community for the provocation. The Grand Imam of Egypt Al–Azhar condemned it as “reckless extremism and barbarism”. Iran have allegedly summoned the French ambassador stating that the representation of Jesus was “offensive and crossed all red lines”. 

Some are asking whether the act was really meant to be a parody of da Vinci’s Last Supper? I think so.  

Despite the creative director initially suggesting the scene was ‘just’ Bacchanalia (Greco–Roman pagan festivals of the god of wine and fertility), performers from the scene have subsequently suggested otherwise. Even if it was meant to symbolise firstly the Last Supper and then Bacchanalia, it still implies a paganisation of the Last Supper. The Organising Committee have responded to the outrage assuming a Last Supper allusion but stating that it was “not their intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief” but that they wanted to “celebrate community and tolerance” which “we believe… was achieved”.  

How did they not think portraying one of, if not the most, iconic depictions of Christianity in a provocative way would not anger Christians? Or was religious sensitivity simply not on their radar? 

If the Olympic Committee has enough religious awareness to suggest disqualification to a Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca who had an image of Christ the Redeemer on his surfboard or suggest the banning of the hijab for all Olympic athletes both in the name of France’s strict separation of religion and state, they should have enough religious sensitivity not only to uphold their own secular values but to realise the hurt such a parody would cause. Surely, they can’t claim religious ignorance.  

As a parody of the Last Supper, I believe intentionally trying to provoke, it was done so, or so the Committee say, in the name of “celebrating community and tolerance”. Is “tolerance” only inclusive to those that share one’s particular worldview? As Archbishop Viganò has pointed out, “tolerance cannot be the alibi for the systematic destruction of Christian society”. The ability to blaspheme and desecrate something that is so sacred in the name of “tolerance” is emblematic of a “deeply secularist, post–modern society” as Catholic Bishop Robert Barron stated. Christianity’s credibility, wisdom and beauty is often sidelined or ignored in a world that is falsely believed to be secular.  

Christianity and sport have a positive connection, but so far in this year’s Olympic Games that connection has not been the focus. As the Holy See’s document on faith and sport suggests,  

“When sport is lived in a way that respects the dignity of the person and is free from economic, media or political exploitation, it can become a model for all areas of life. ‘When it is like this,’ as Pope Francis said, ‘sport transcends the level of pure physicality and takes us into the arena of the spirit and even of mystery.’ To educate in a Christian way is to form people in human values in the whole of reality, which includes transcendence. The profound meaning of sport is that it can educate to the fullness of life and an openness to the experience of transcendence.” 

Thus far, the Paris Olympics have been far from politically neutral despite that being one of the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic charter. But I hope that in this Games there is an opportunity to show this version of the effect sport can have; that sport can unite, portray solidarity, and display the very best of human dignity. And maybe then, it can manifest the fullness of life and an openness to transcendence. In doing so, I hope my faith in spirit of the Olympics can return.   

Interested in this? Share it on social media. 

Join our monthly e–newsletter to keep up to date with our latest research and events. And check out our Supporter Programme to find out how you can help our work.