Former ESPN anchor goes off on Olympics

The Paris Olympics are in full swing but the conversation is still partly stuck last week at the opening ceremonies. A display depicting the Greek myth celebration “Festivity” featuring the god Dionysus struck a chord with some who saw it as a diss toward the Christian scene of the Last Supper as depicted by Leonardi Da Vinci’s legendary painting. After everyone from U.S. house speaker Mike Johnson to ESPN host Pat McAfee took issue with the scene, former SportsCenter anchor took to her podcast on Monday to explain her issue with it.

In an episode of The Sage Steele Show , Steele rejected artistic director Thomas Jolly’s explanation of the scene and called it a “mockery” of the biblical event.

“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 not only rejected Jolly’s explanation but believes it was actually intended to insult viewers around the world.

“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 took issue with the drag performers and “scantily clad” characters in the scene and said there was a “time and place” for art like that, which is not the Olympics.

Steele then wondered how Paris organizers allowed the scene to go forward.

“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.”

Like McAfee , the main issue for Steele appears to be the way in which the scene could be polarizing when the Olympics are theoretically a unifying event. While Steele is religious, she did not say what personally was so insulting about the scene. Instead, the optics appear to be the issue.

On the other hand, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker called the scene an insult to god , while U.S. Congressman Johnson said it was “insulting to Christian people.”

The scene caused quite a stir, but if anyone wants to go back to being unified, there are some pretty special sports moments going on across France that can do just that.

[ The Sage Steele Show on YouTube ]

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