Are not even the Olympic Games sacrosanct?
Yeah, you’re right. Probably not, given their long history of judging corruption, state boycotts and widespread doping.
But the news which broke on Tuesday, three days before the opening ceremony and hours before the first action in the 2024 Games’ football tournament, meant that the cherished Olympic values of fair play stood in tatters even before organisers emblazoned that message across the Parisien sky and the River Seine.
That it was Canada who performed such an egregious breach of the rules — by all stereotypes a country known for its people being polite, respectful, laidback and just terribly nice — only adds to the ironic drama.
There are five rings in the Olympic logo — take just two of them intertwined, and they resemble a pair of binoculars.
So this is what happened…
On Tuesday, at a training session ahead of their opening match of the group stage in Saint-Etienne on Thursday, staff members from the New Zealand women’s football team noticed a drone hovering above them.
Bev Priestman, the Canada coach, watching her team in action earlier this year (Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
They called the on-site police, who detained the device’s operator, who was later revealed to be a staff member from the Canadian…
