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Vladimir Putin Winter Olympics

Sochi Winter Olympics organisers admit running pre-filmed footage to avoid airing opening ceremony rings failure

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

February 8, 2014 | 2 min read

The organisers of the Sochi Winter Olympics have admitted to running pre-filmed footage of the opening ceremony for the Russian audience, in order to avoid broadcasting a glitch which saw only four of the five Olympic Rings light up.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Jean Claude-Killy, the former French Skier who has lead the International Olympic Committee coordination commission for the Games, admitted that to avoid embarrassment, the coverage jumped to practice footage where all of the rings lit up as planned. "It didn't show on television, thank God," stated Killy, with the Associated Press also reporting that producers explained that the switch was made in order to preserve the imagery of the Olmypic symbols.
The switch was not apparent to the rest of the watching world however, which saw only the four rings light up, before questions started being asked upon the release of a picture of President Vladamir Putin watching the coverage from a private room on a television set that clearly displayed five rings.These games have been a highly personal project for Putin, who is understood to be closely monitoring their progress. This led to speculation that the footage broadcast to Putin alone may have been doctored, or that the picture itself had been changed for publicity reasons. The Associated Press has also reported that the decision to cut to the practice footage was made by Opening Ceremony’s executive creative director, Konstantin Ernst, who admitted "This is certainly bad, but it does not humiliate us."The reason for the failure was apparently as a result of ‘a bad command’ made by a stage manager.
Vladimir Putin Winter Olympics

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