Organizers of the Paris Olympics have clarified that a controversial portion of the opening ceremony thought to be mocking The Last Supper and Christianity was actually a parody of the Festival of Dionysus, who is the Greek god of fertility, wine, and revelry. While this explanation made sense to most people, considering the Olympics are Greek in their origins and The Last Supper had no relevance, former ESPN personality Sage Steele simply refused to believe the explanation.
“It felt absolutely like they were mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper, 1,000%,” Steele said on The Sage Steele Show. “Obviously, we now know that Thomas Jolly, the designer, has said … that’s not at all what it was. It was a recreation of the Greek God Dionysus, and there was an apology, ‘if it offended anybody,’ which is not really an apology.”
Steele went on to express disbelief that the scene was not specifically intended to mock Christianity.
“I don’t believe it. I saw what I saw, and I happen to be one of millions who saw it and just thought, ‘Why?’ Mainly because yes, I understand opening ceremonies are supposed to represent the history of the country, the city that it’s in, and celebrate the athletes. So I don’t see how (the display at the table) tied into what we’re celebrating with the Olympics every four years. And it was absolutely a slap in the face to me because there’s no way he will convince that it was not a mockery because of the type of people, frankly, that he had in there.”
Steele claimed that it was “totally intentional” and a “slap in the face.”
“I look at it from a perspective of when you spend tens of millions of dollars on the production of something that you know the entire planet will see … how many thousands of pairs of eyes were on this?” she asked. “I’m sure there’s some very smart, brilliant, creative people involved in something like this. You can never and will never convince me that they didn’t think to themselves, maybe this is pushing it … this is totally intentional and it’s a slap in the face.”
