On July 27th, the opening ceremony of the Olympics 2024 took place in Paris, France. Unlike the previous events held in stadiums, the host country France decided to hold the opening ceremony this time along the Seine River. As such, representatives of all the nations were introduced in a parade on boats on the Seine River before reaching the main venue, the Trocadero Square. According to the organizer, the parade route was approximately 6km.
BTS WAS MENTIONED AT THE 2024 Paris Olympic Games OPENING CEREMONY!!!
— moni⁷ 𖠌 (@sevenrchive) July 26, 2024
“Three things that represent South Korea: BTS/Kimchi/Hanbok”
SO PROUD 🥹🫶 pic.twitter.com/P5xhn1B1sh
After the opening ceremony, the video introducing the South Korea Olympic committees spread widely in online communities. In particular, three symbols representing South Korea were said to be kimchi, hanbok, and BTS in the video. Immediately, ARMYs (BTS’s fandom) around the world were very proud because their idols were mentioned at such a big event.
However, the comment, “BTS, kimchi and hanbok are three symbols of South Korea”, was not included in the actual introduction at Olympic 2024. It was actually edited and added by Korean media when reporting news about their representatives at the Olympics 2024. To prove this, some pointed out that other nations only had their country names and several details shown on the screen without additional introductions.
BTS’s influence in the Korean entertainment industry and in the global market is undeniable, so Korean media might have added that to the introduction to show their admiration for the global boy group.
Earlier on July 15th, BTS’s oldest member Jin proudly appeared in Paris as a torchbearer for the Olympics Paris 2024. He was among the people in the first torch relay starting at the Louvre Museum. This event was even more meaningful as it happened on Bastille Day, known as the national day of France.
At that time, Jin made headlines as soon as he started his running route as a torchbearer. The hashtag #JinxOlympics2024 immediately rose to No.4 on Worldwide Twitter Trending with 900,000 retweets. The taglines “JIN CARRIES THE FLAME” and “JIN AT PARIS OLYMPICS” also entered Worldwide Trending with more than 1 million posts.
