The Olympics Has a Bad Guy: Anyone in an Argentina Jersey

French spectators booed at a boat carrying Argentina’s Olympic team during the opening ceremony on Friday. There are different explanations for the antipathy.The Olympic Games have long been governed by a tacit code: If fans can’t say anything nice, they shouldn’t say anything at all. Jeering, whistling and catcalling at athletes who have spent years to make it to the pinnacle of their sports is “unacceptable,” as Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, once put it. To boo is, well, taboo.

As far as the French are concerned, though, there appears to be one exception: anyone wearing the sky blue and white of Argentina.

In the opening few days of the Paris Games,…