LONDON, England ● A diplomatic gaffe was narrowly avoided at the Olympic men’s individual all-round gymnastics final on Wednesday as a long pause preceded the loud-speaker introduction of South Korea’s Kim Soo-myun with the announcer seeming to check which Korea the gymnast was from.
Kim, standing in front of the vault and waiting to wave to the audience when his name was announced, appeared amused as the audience collectively held their breath in what was an otherwise flowing list of introductions by the compere.
After the dramatic pause, the announcer correctly introduced Kim to loud applause.
Olympic organisers are desperate to avoid another embarrassing blunder after an incident early in the women’s football tournament when the North Korean team walked off the pitch after the flag of long-term rival South Korea was mistakenly displayed on stadium screens.
North and South Korea are divided by the world’s most militarised border and remain technically at war after an armistice stopped the Korean conflict in 1953.