NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico apologized after he confused the Martinique flag for the flag of Palestine throughout an Olympics medal ceremony that adopted the electrical males’s basketball closing on Saturday.
The apology comes after Mathias Lessort, a middle on Group France, wrapped the flag of his place of origin, Martinique, a French island territory, round him after Group USA beat his squad for the gold medal.
“You noticed with Lessort, one of many backup facilities, the Palestine flag draped over his shoulders,” Tirico stated throughout the broadcast because the French gamers obtained their silver medals.
“We’re actually acutely aware of any shows concerning the Center East battle from athletes concerned in these video games.”
Each the Martinique and Palestine flags use the identical colours — black, purple and inexperienced — though the latter additionally options the colour white.
Gregory Shamus by way of Getty Pictures
Lessort has performed for quite a lot of worldwide basketball groups over his profession, together with a stint with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.
Following the mix-up, Tirico took to X, previously referred to as Twitter, to deal with the matter and apologize.
“Simply acknowledging, as quickly as attainable, my error for misidentifying the Martinique flag because the flag of Palestine throughout the medal ceremony at Males’s Basketball as we speak,” wrote the sportscaster, who additionally made the same apology at first of NBC’s prime-time protection of the Paris Video games.
“They’re related however clearly distinctly totally different which is kind of essential for all concerned.”