South Sudan celebrated its first-ever Olympic basketball victory with a stunning 90-79 upset over Puerto Rico. The debut couldn’t have gone better on the court, with the team featuring five double-digit scorers, including standout guard Carlik Jones, and holding Puerto Rico to just 25 points in the second half. However, the pregame ceremonies were marred by a significant error that cast a shadow over the momentous occasion.
In a major gaffe, event organizers played the national anthem of Sudan instead of South Sudan’s anthem before the game. This mistake deeply offended the South Sudanese fans and players, given the historical context of South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011 after a prolonged civil war.
The crowd responded with boos, and although the correct anthem was eventually played, the damage had been done. Forward Majok Deng voiced the team’s frustration, stating, “They have to be better because this is the biggest stage, and you know that South Sudan is playing. There’s no way you can get that wrong by playing a different anthem. It’s disrespectful.”
South Sudan’s coach, Royal Ivey, emphasized the significance of the national anthem for his players. “It’s the pride for their country. South Sudan. ‘Sud’ means ‘the land of the Black.’ These guys wanted to play. Wanted to hear their anthem. They messed up on the anthem, but they got it correct. We all make mistakes,” Ivey said.
Forward Nuni Omot mentioned that the error added extra motivation for the team. “It gave us fuel for the fire,” he said. “Obviously, we felt disrespected when that happened. We just got to continue to show the world what we’re capable of. That is just a testament to people not respecting us still, so we took that as fuel.”
In response to the blunder, Paris 2024 issued a formal apology to South Sudan and its supporters. “Paris 2024 presents its most sincere apologies to the team from South Sudan and their supporters for the human error during the playing of their national anthem, prior to today’s men’s basketball match,” the statement read. “We fully understand the gravity of the mistake. The mistaken playing of the wrong national anthem was quickly interrupted and the correct national anthem was then played before the match began. Together with our technical team, the necessary steps have been taken to understand what caused the mistake and to ensure that it will not happen again.”
This incident was not the only ceremonial blunder of the early days of the 2024 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also had to apologize for misidentifying South Korea as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the official name for North Korea, during the opening ceremony.
