Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 12/8/2024; Author: Elma Murić
The opening of the Olympic Games in Paris sparked a series of social media posts with inaccurate and manipulative claims about the alleged symbolism of the ceremony. One TikTok post alone has accumulated over 840,000 views.
On July 27, 2024, a two-and-a-half-minute video was published on the TikTok platform. In the video, an unknown narrator gives a series of “interpretations” of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games (OG) in Paris.
The video consists of footage from the opening of the Olympic Games, as the narrator “explains” what is seen in a dramatic tone. He describes the shots in which a woman wearing an aristocratic costume “holds” her severed head and sings as a depiction of a “satanic ritual sacrifice”. He claims that a scene with “drag queens” was shown at the ceremony, which mockingly represents the “Last Supper”. He also claims that another biblical scene is depicted – the fourth horseman of the apocalypse bringing famine and death.
In the same tone, the narrator compared the ceremony in Paris to the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, which he claims predicted the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Paris ceremony, he states that it shows people “falling on the floor”, that is, “suddenly dying”. Corona-sceptics and opponents of vaccination often talk about the alleged trend of “sudden deaths” caused by vaccination against COVID-19.
He also described some shots as depicting kidnapped children in tunnels who are to be “sacrificed”.
This TikTok clip was taken from a longer clip that was posted on July 27 on the YouTube channel Fakat Podcast (archived here). By the time of writing this analysis, it has collected tens of thousands of different interactions, and it has been viewed more than 840,000 times.
What are the facts?
The Olympic Games in Paris opened on Friday, July 26, 2024. The beginning of this sporting event was marked by a ceremony whose artistic program caused numerous comments, praise and criticism in the public, as well as an onslaught of disinformation about its alleged symbolism. In the days that followed, supporters of conspiracy theories shared a number of incorrect and manipulative claims about this ceremony in the public space, describing it as “satanic” and “terrifying”.
The viral video on TikTok is actually a compilation of misleading claims about the event. The author of the video begins his story with “a woman who held her severed head in a terrifying house”, stating that “many interpreted it as a ritual satanic sacrifice”. However, as many media have already written (1, 2, 3), this part of the program shows the French Queen Marie Antoinette, who was executed by guillotine in 1793. The building where this part of the program was held is known as the Conciergerie. Once part of the royal palace, the Conciergerie served as a revolutionary court and prison during the French Revolution, where Marie Antoinette spent her last days. So, it is a depiction of events from French history, not a “ritual sacrifice”.
In the video, it is stated that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was also “a mockery of Jesus’ Last Supper”. In fact, it is a part of the program in which the Greek god Dionysus is shown. Some of the public interpreted it as a parody of the Last Supper. After such interpretations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) emphasized that “there was never any intention to show disrespect to any religious group” in the program of the ceremony. Raskrinkavanje wrote about it in one of the earlier analyses of incorrect claims about the supposed symbolism of that ceremony.
In this analysis, Raskrinkavanje dealt in detail with the misleading claims about the performance featuring the mechanical horse and rider carrying the Olympic flag, which was also described in a viral video on TikTok as depicting the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. Contrary to viral claims, as we pointed out at the time, that part of the program is not connected with the symbolism of this biblical story. Namely, as the media reported, the rider draped in the Olympic flag was conceived as “the embodiment of the Sequana, the goddess of the Seine River and a symbol of resistance” (1, 2), and the performance was described as “a symbol of resistance, peace, solidarity and unity”.
The author of the TikTok video compared the ceremony in Paris to the opening of the London Olympics in 2012, stating that one of the dance parts of the program depicted “sudden death”, which “reminded many of the Olympic Games in London and that big man with a needle in his hands”, adding that “we know what followed after that, which disease”.
With these statements, the author clearly implies that those in charge of organising the London Olympics “announced” the COVID-19 pandemic. These are four-year-old claims that that edition of the summer Olympics “predicted” the pandemic of this disease, which was also reported by Reuters in May 2020. In its explanation of the inaccurate claims about the part of the ceremony that featured, among other things, a figure in a black cloak, Reuters said the following about the 2020 Facebook post that made the claims:
The play has no real connection with the coronavirus. Not only was the ceremony planned eight years before the pandemic, but the topics the announcement calls into question can be logically explained.
The opening performance was designed by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle as a tribute to British history and culture. In the second of three “acts”, Boyle paid tribute to the NHS [British Public Health Service], a national institution beloved by many Britons (here). The sequence, which can be seen at the 45-minute mark in this video of the ceremony, shows hundreds of nurses dancing on roller skates around hospital beds (here). Later, depictions of famous villains from English literature are seen getting out of bed. The grim reaper-like figure that the post claims symbolizes “death” is actually Lord Voldemort, the main villain in the book series by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter.
According to the Olympic media guide, the play pays tribute to “two of Britain’s greatest achievements: its incredible children’s literature and its National Health Service [NHS]”.
Also, the object that Lord Voldemort’s character is holding in the play is not a “needle”, but a “magic wand”.
You can read about the fabricated trend of “sudden deaths” caused by vaccination against COVID-19 in the analysis below.
The viral TikTok video also states that the figure of a bull shown in the ceremony is a “symbol of Baal”, “one of the main satanic gods”. In this case, too, it concerns misleading claims attributed to the representation of the statue that has been in Paris since 1937, the work of the artist Paul Jouve. Raskrinkavanje wrote about it in detail in this analysis.
The statue, as we explained earlier, was not created for the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, it does not depict a “golden calf” or “Moloka” nor did those in charge of organising the vent “promote Satanism” and “mock” Christianity. Likewise, the claim that the statue depicts the ancient god Baal, who, according to Britannica, was considered the god of fertility in ancient times has no basis.
The narrator in the TikTok clip also comments on the shot in which the children are holding the Olympic torch, describing it as “an image of small children lost in a tunnel” that “represents the disappearances and sacrifices of children”. That is not correct.
At the very beginning of the ceremony, the audience was shown a pre-recorded video (archived here) in which soccer player Zinedine Zidane carries the Olympic torch and runs through the streets of Paris. In his mission, Zidane finds himself in the subway where the power goes out, after which he passes the torch to the children at the station. The Washington Post also wrote about this part of the ceremony, stating that the children, after receiving the torch, “made their way through the catacombs and to the boat”. Other media in the world and our region also wrote about this “journey” of the Olympic torch through the streets of Paris (1, 2), and photos showing children and a masked participant of the ceremony carrying the Olympic torch in a boat are also available on the Getty Images platform.
So, although there are many articles, videos and photos available in public showing the path of the Olympic torch and the program specially designed for this purpose, the author of the TikTok video manipulatively linked this part of the program to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which includes claims of the existence of underground tunnels for “abuse” and “child trafficking”. Raskrinkanje has written about it in numerous analyzes (1, 2, 3, 4). Bizarre claims about “locking children” in tunnels to be used to obtain adrenochrome, a drug allegedly used for rejuvenation, have no basis.
Given the above, it is clear that the author, in his compilation of incorrect claims about the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, tries to link different parts of that program into a narrative of conspiracy theories according to which the “global elites” manage events in the world and have alleged secret plans to “depopulate the planet” (1, 2, 3). Details from the artistic program of the ceremony were described as “satanic” and as an announcement of alleged wars, famine and death, and the Paris Olympics were misused to revive disinformation about the “planned” COVID-19 pandemic (1, 2, 3). Featured in the viral clip was also a claim that one part of the program symbolizes the alleged sacrifice and abuse of children in the tunnels (1, 2). This is a series of incorrect claims and conspiracy theories, and Raskrinkanje wrote about them in numerous analyzes in the previous period.
Therefore, claims that the opening of the Paris Olympics included depictions of ritual sacrifice, the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, and kidnapped children in tunnels, as well as mockery of the Last Supper and a statue of a “satanic god”, are considered to be a distribution of fake news and a conspiracy theory. We give the same rating to the claims that the ceremony showed a trend of “sudden deaths” caused by vaccination, as well as that the opening of the London Olympics “announced” the COVID-19 pandemic.
