There will be two cauldrons in Rio, one at the Maracana soccer stadium that is hosting the opening ceremony and another open to the public in downtown Rio. The 120 member team was led by flag bearer and the only individual gold medal victor in history of the country Abhinav Bindra.
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“Whether it was the music, or the colours, or the atmosphere here it had very much a feel of Rio de Janeiro and of Brazil”. Hmmm. Many countries like South Sudan competing for the first time in these Olympic games.
Michael Phelps was selected to be the Team USA flag bearer earlier this week. Germany will be represented by 423 athletes.
National badminton player Derek Wong was Singapore’s flagbearer and was accompanied by 15 other Team Singapore athletes plus 13 officials.
Athletes from 205 nations and territories were set to march behind their flags. It was simple, classy and effective. Creative director Fernando Meirelles (known for the 2002 film City of God) said he and his team wanted to celebrate diversity and in turn celebrate the world.
Overall, the atmosphere in the Maracana Stadium was celebratory, as a succession of actors, dancers and musicians raced through routines meant to showcase Brazil’s culture, diversity and history, even finding time for a brief lecture on environmental issues.
Her ouster less than four months out from the games for alleged budget violations was one of the many complications that roiled Brazil’s Olympic preparations and impacted the opening ceremony itself.
An abridged history of Brazil then started to take shape, with simple but attractive routines depicting the beginning of life on Earth and the early days in the Amazon rainforest. And her trail, formed into the contours of iconic works by Brazil’s greatest architect, Oscar Niemeyer.
They lit up the arena with the lights on their mobile phones before roaring their approval when supermodel model Gisele Bundchen strode into the stadium to the unofficial Brazilian anthem, The Girl from Ipanema.
Protesters, many of them from Rousseff’s leftist Workers’ Party, said Brazil’s deep economic and social problems are being swept under the carpet for the Olympics. Audience members were invited to join in and the fun, carefree nature of the entire ceremony was underlined.
The head of the organizing committee of the “Rio 2016” Carlos Nuzman, and head of the IOC Thomas Bach delivered speech at the solemn opening ceremony.
A key political message in the show was climate change, with a video depicting rising temperatures, melting ice caps and Rio de Janeiro becoming submerged as sea levels rise beyond control.
Men’s qualification in the artistic gymnastics and the first day dressage featuring Gemma Tattersall and William Fox-Pitt round off an action-packed opening day for Team GB at Rio 2016. Actresses Judi Dench and Fernanda Montenegro lent their voices for a classic poem about hope for the future.
The peace symbol, tweaked into the shape of a tree, was projected onto the floor of the Maracana Stadium that filed with thousands of athletes from the 207 teams.
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But the boos that greeted acting Brazilian president Michel Temer’s short address to open the Games, the smattering of jeers the Russian team received and the catcalls that followed a reference to government funding tell a different story. “We are living in a world of crises, mistrust and uncertainty”, he said. “The 10,000 best athletes in the world competing with each other, at the same time, living peacefully together in one Olympic village, sharing their meals and their emotions”.
