NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Tirico. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

NBC Olympics host apologizes for misidentifying flag as Palestine's

By Austen Bundy | Last updated Aug 10, 2024 8:53 PM ET

The Paris Olympics on NBC have been must-watch television, but they weren't without some on-air mistakes.

NBC's primetime Olympic host Mike Tirico began Saturday's broadcast with an apology for an error he made during the men's basketball medal ceremony earlier in the afternoon.

While members of the French team were receiving their silver medals, Mathias Lessort pulled out the flag of Martinique, a former French colony, and draped it on his back. It was tri-colored with a red triangle on the left side, a black bar on top and a green one on the bottom.

Tirico misidentified the flag as that of Palestine — which has a similar color scheme but contains an additional white bar in between the black and green ones.

NBC #Olympics announcer, Mike Tirico, said this was a Palestine flag being displayed by French Olympic basketball player, Mathias Lessort, but it is actually the flag of Martinique - a territory of France… pic.twitter.com/0DwnEgjJUt
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) August 10, 2024

The broadcaster, who has anchored NBC's Olympics prime-time coverage throughout the Paris Games, also took to X for a written apology prior to Saturday's broadcast.

Just acknowledging, as soon as possible, my error for misidentifying the Martinique flag as the flag of Palestine during the medal ceremony at Men’s Basketball today. They are similar but obviously distinctly different which is quite important for all involved.

I apologize…
— MikeTirico (@miketirico) August 10, 2024