The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games caused uproar in the religious right all around the world. People were critical of the fashion show that included a scene resembling a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting. Former NASCAR star Kenny Wallace was amongst them and announced on his YouTube channel that he was boycotting the games for the display.
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He said that he wouldn’t watch the games although he is fond of competition in the general sense. “It’s the Summer Olympics,” he said. “So, I want to see who’s the best cuz I like competition. But, on the other hand, it’s like when I had to quit drinking Coke, Pepsi, or sweet tea. I win. If I get addicted to something that’s not good for my body, I will win. I won’t do it. So, I will not watch the Olympics.”
The depiction of da Vinci’s painting had French actor Philippe Katerine portraying the Greek god Dionysus. He was painted in blue and adorned little more than a crop of flowers to cover himself. While there are some who’ve been expressing support, others have not been happy with it. Wallace reiterated, “I’m not going to watch them because they screwed up at the start.”
The artistic director of the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, defended the show in a news conference last week by stating that it was done to display “inclusion.” “Our subject was not to be subversive,” he said. “We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that.”
Wallace is left happy with his boycott gaining popularity
With a lot of people responding to Wallace’s boycott on his comment section and other social media platforms, news channels began reporting on it over the course of the week. The former racer put up another video in response to update his views on the topic. Following a brief period of wallowing in his words becoming a matter of national news, he got down to underlining his opinion.
“I’m not watching the Olympics and I feel bad for those great athletes because you know those athletes have worked their whole life,” he said. “They deserve to be seen. Anyway, I feel bad that so many people are boycotting the Olympics but that’s the price they pay over there when they insult 1.6 billion people.” Though Wallace contended that news organizations have blown his words up, he does seem happy that they’ve done so.
