There’s nothing like the unique Brazilian vibe – and the opening ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will see no shortage of samba, culture, diversity and history as the South American nation proudly showcases its traditions and environmental wonders.
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“Our admiration for you is even greater because you managed this at a very hard time in Brazilian history”, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, told the country during the ceremony at the famed Maracana stadium.
Each Olympian who entered the opening ceremony was given a seed and a cartridge of soil, which was to be placed in mirror towers all over the stage floor. A very big green peace symbol dangled over the centre of the arena, before a dazzling projection depicted the birth of the Amazon rainforest.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he is confident the Olympics Games will be “safe, sound, secure” and said the United States and Brazil are working together to ensure they are.
Brazils interim President Michel Temer declared the opening of the games. He was standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff.
Rower Gevvie Stone was one of many rowers who didn’t attend.
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The capper on the evening came when Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron.
But the high point was in rendition of the late Tom Jobim’s legendary “The Girl from Ipanema”, performed by his grandson Daniel as supermodel and national icon Gisele Bundchen, clad in a long sleeved, gold-sequin spangled dress, sashayed across on her most ambitious catwalk across the stadium. But a list provided Friday by the Foreign Ministry showed fewer than 25 in attendance, among them the presidents of Argentina, France and Portugal.
The low-tech, cut-price opening ceremony, a moment of levity for a nation beset by economic and political woes, featured performers as slaves laboring with backs bent, gravity-defying climbers hanging from the ledges of buildings in Brazil’s teeming megacities and – of course – dancers, all hips and wobble, grooving to thumping funk and sultry samba.
It may have taken NBC five hours (no, really) to get to it, but Rio’s display for the Olympic flame almost made that wait worthwhile. Their flag-bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya. When they sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.
Even swimmer Michael Phelps, the USA flag bearer, left shortly after the Americans were introduced.
Russia’s team shrunk from 389 to 270 athletes following the government-orchestrated cheating in previous, recent competitions.
Iran picked a woman, archer Zahra Nemati, as flag-bearer for its team made up overwhelmingly of men. “We are calling for action”, said Fernando Meirelles, one of the directors of the show.
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But the climax of the show, the lighting of the cauldron, depends on whether Brazil’s most famous athlete – soccer star Pele – appears. “In the end, I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got”.
