GLASGOW, Scotland – London Olympic organizers mistakenly displayed the South Korean flag on a jumbo screen instead of North Korea’s before a women’s soccer match Wednesday, prompting the North Koreans to refuse to take the field for nearly an hour.
The flag flap began during player introductions when a North Korean player was introduced along with a shot of the South Korean flag.
The match against Colombia was delayed for more than an hour, and organizers apologized for the error. But the organizers’ statement included another gaffe: It failed to refer to the countries by their official Olympic names, causing organizers to reissue the statement using “Republic of Korea” and “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
North Korea won 2-0.
The U.S. women’s soccer team overcame an early two-goal deficit to defeat France 4-2 in its opening game.
Abby Wambach used her size and strength to put in a header, Alex Morgan applied her speed to chip one over the goalkeeper and Carli Lloyd broke the tie with a 25-yard rocket.
Morgan added an insurance goal – created by a nice run from Tobin Heath – for the Americans, which began play two days before the opening ceremony and 400-plus miles from the British capital. Soccer starts its Olympics early so it has time to play a full tournament of games.
Also, Brazil forward Cristiane became the top women’s scorer at the Olympics after netting her 11th tournament goal in Brazil’s 5-0 rout of Cameroon.
9 track athletes caught doping
Nine track athletes were suspended ahead of the London Olympics for doping, including three who were caught in retests of samples from last year’s world championships, the IAAF said. The governing body said six were caught in biological passport tests, which measure changes in an athlete’s blood profile. The others were sanctioned after retroactive testing of blood and urine samples from the worlds in Daegu, South Korea.
Around the Games
Two-time Olympic fencing champion Mariel Zagunis, a former Notre Dame All-American and national champion, will carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremony. … Roger Federer and Victoria Azarenka are seeded No. 1 for the singles tennis tournaments.
