Rio 2016 has had a hard upbringing with worries about the country’s ability to afford it, Rio’s preparations and sport’s credibility in the face of a divisive doping crisis, but South America’s first ever Olympics is now ready to entertain the world and perhaps revive a nation.
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This meant the evening’s first boos went to the team from Brazil’s traditional rival Argentina, but it did little to quash the party atmosphere with a succession of dancers, musicians and volunteers racing through routines showcasing Brazil’s diversity and history, even finding time for a lecture on environmental issues.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This brought us to the main speeches by the chairman of the Rio 2016 organising committee Carlos Nuzman and IOC boss Bach.
The honor of officially declaring the games open fell to Michel Temer, Brazil’s unpopular interim president, who was loudly jeered and faced shouts of “out with Temer”.
With the world hoping for a respite from recent tragedies, it’s perhaps fitting that two stricken nations face each other early on.
The oath of honour on behalf of the athletes was taken by Robert Scheidt, the sailor who won two golds, two silvers and a bronze from his five Olympic appearances. Also participating for the first time is the 10-member Refugee Olympic Team comprising refugees from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo.
Mardini will be the first refugee athlete to compete later today. When they sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.
Each athlete will be asked to plant seeds that will eventually grow into trees and be planted in the Athletes Forest in Rio in a few years.
The 549-member USA team was led by flag-holder Michael Phelps.
On behalf of all 11,288 competitors (6,182 men; 5,106 women), Brazilian two-time Olympic champion sailor Robert Scheidt pledged that they won’t take banned drugs – an oath likely to ring false to fans after the scandal of government-orchestrated cheating in Russian Federation.
While it escaped a blanket ban, Russian Federation is paying the price in the shape of a smaller team, whittled down from a 389 athletes to around 270.
Iran’s flagbearer was wheelchair-bound Zahra Nemati, their first ever female flag-carrier who will compete in archery despite being paralysed in both legs. Another woman pushed Nemati’s wheelchair.
Moraes later wrote that she seemed “the paradigm of the young Carioca (slang for Rio residents): a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone-it is a gift of life in its lovely and melancholic constant ebb and flow”.
Later projections of many colors represented Brazil’s Carnival, the world’s biggest party.
After the grandeur of Beijing’s opening ceremony in 2008 and the high-tech, cheeky inventiveness of London’s in 2012, Rio’s was earthier, less swish and still inventive. Creative director Fernando Meirelles said their budget was slashed by half as Brazil’s economic recession bit ever harder.
“It is pretty tacky to be overspending”, he said.
More than the entertainment there were several messages to the world.
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“In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got”.
