UPDATED with Tirico’s apology: NBC’s main Olympic sportscaster Mike Tirico triggered instant backlash on social media over a comment about the flag French basketball player Mathias Lessort had wrapped around him during the Olympics medal ceremony after the Men’s Basketball final.
Lessort hails from the French overseas territory of Martinique, and displayed the flag of his native land, which is somewhat similar to the Palestinian flag. The French team, who won silver, and Serbia, which took bronze, flanked on the podium the Olympic champions from the U.S.
“You saw with Lessort, one of the back centers, the Palestine flag draped over his shoulders,” Tirico said during the broadcast after the French players had been awarded their medals. “We are certainly conscious of any displays regarding the Middle East conflict from athletes involved in these games.”
Shocked viewers immediately took to X to point out the error.
“No way Mike Tirico said the Martinique flag (French Colony) was the Palestine flag😭,” one person tweeted.
“Mike Tirico that’s NOT the flag of Palestine. That’s the flag of Martinique, which is to France like Puerto Rico is to us,” added another.
“Rare miss from Mike Tirico, but that is in fact not the Palestinian flag draped on Lessort’s shoulders. It is the flag of Martinique,” a third person chimed in.
Even more surprising than the mistake was the fact that Tirico did not correct himself in the remaining 10-15 min of the telecast before he signed off.
“Kind of shocked that nobody from the NBC truck got in Mike Tirico’s ear to tell him that is NOT the Palestine flag out there during the medal ceremony,” one person wrote on X.
Later, Tirico took to X to apologize.
“Just acknowledging, as soon as possible, my error for misidentifying the Martinique flag as the flag of Palestine during the medal ceremony at Men’s Basketball today,” he wrote. “They are similar but obviously distinctly different which is quite important for all involved.”
Tirico repeated the apology almost verbatim at the top of NBC’s Saturday primetime Olympic coverage.
“Before we get going, an acknowledgment of an error that I made earlier today in misidentifying the Martinique flag as the flag of Palestine during the men’s basketball medal ceremony,” he said. “They are similar, but obviously distinctly different which is quite important for all involved, and I apologize for that error.”
Dominic Patten and Sofia Behzadi contributed to this report.
