Former 12-time All-American collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines ripped the 2024 Paris Olympics for its controversial “Last Supper” scene from the Opening Ceremony.
“I feel heartbroken for the Olympic athletes (many of which are friends) who trained their entire lives to compete on that stage but will now have significantly fewer eyes watching and admiring because of the satanic, blasphemous display put on by the Olympic organizers,” Gaines tweeted Sunday.
Gaines, who graduated from Kentucky in 2022 and now writes for Outkick, describes herself on her website as a “leader defending women’s single-sex spaces, advocating for equality and fairness, and standing up for women’s safety, privacy, and equal opportunities.”
She was very outspoken against trans swimmer Lia Thomas, joining a lawsuit against the NCAA for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing Thomas to compete at the 2022 national championships.
Gaines is one of many upset by the scandalous “Last Supper” routine, which featured drag queens and dancers parodying the famous religious moment.
Eighteen individuals stood behind a long table in front of the Seine River and Eiffel Tower, with one woman wearing a halo that could be viewed as a resemblance to Jesus Christ.
The Olympics’ X account described the scene as “Olympics: The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”
Organizers have since apologized for the scene.
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“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” spokesperson Anne Descamps said Sunday during a press conference.
“Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
The ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, told France’s BFM-TV That “The Last Supper” was “not my inspiration.”
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“The idea was to have a pagan celebration connected to the gods of Olympus. You will never find in me a desire to mock and denigrate anyone,” Jolly told the outlet, as translated by Google. “I wanted to make a ceremony that repairs, that reconciles. And also that reaffirms the values of our Republic, liberty-equality-fraternity.” And the director regrets: “On the other hand, if we use our work to regenerate behind this moment of union again division, hatred while it continues to progress, then that would be a great shame.”
One Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology company, C Spire, pulled its advertising from the Olympics following the parody.