Congratulating the athletes and the supporters and fans who will be filling the sporting arenas of host city Rio ” and at venues in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil’s capital), and Manaus ” in the weeks ahead, the Secretary-General, in his message for the games, said: The Olympics and Paralympics celebrate the best of humanity.
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The flagbearer for the USA has led the contingent of red, white and blue-clad American athletes into Maracana Stadium, after being picked for that distinction earlier this week.
Still, during the Olympics, there will be twice the number of police and military than in London during the 2012 Games.
The 75-year-old, a three-time World Cup victor, is the most famous athlete in Brazilian history and was due to perform the coveted task of capping off the showpiece to mark the beginning of the Games. Players were set to wear their ceremony uniforms and essentially pretend marching, as if they were in Rio.
The Olympic Games will signal a new direction for Brazil through their virtues of peace and unity, Rio 2016 organizing committee president Carlos Nuzman said on Friday.
Temer assumed the office of the presidency in May, when President Dilma Rousseff, who has been suspended while the Senate decides whether to bring impeachment charges against her.
Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei De Lima did the honors of lighting the cauldron, getting his golden moment 12 years later than he might have.
Cordeiro was a left-field but touching choice after he was famously attacked by a spectator while leading the 2004 Athens Olympics marathon late in the race. You have transformed the city of Rio de Janeiro into a modern metropolis and made it even more lovely. Fuglsang followed him to take silver and Majka appeared content with bronze.
Another cauldron was lit in the city’s port area early Saturday that will be displayed for Rio residents to enjoy.
The two-hour Parade of Nations featured Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and the 205 nations in between, including the first Refugee Olympic Team, which received a loud roar from the crowd.
VoteMake your Olym-picks: How will they do in Rio? Rio is proud to be the Olympic capital of the world.
With “USA” emblazoned on the back of his jacket, Michael Phelps carried the flag for the US team, the largest with 549 competitors.
The Russian team was led into the stadium by flag bearer Sergei Tetiukhin, who is on the men’s volleyball team.
“It’s wonderful”, said sailor Robert Scheidt. She was paralyzed in a vehicle accident as a teenager.
Both nations have faced hard times after being hit with deadly extremist attacks, and Turkey is struggling with the aftermath of a bloody attempted coup. This will be our Olympic message: “Earthlings, let’s replant, let’s save the planet”, said the creators of the opening ceremony.
“It is pretty tacky to be overspending”, he said.
The streets of Rio lead to some of the world’s most attractive places and often to some of its most treacherous. “When 40 percent of the homes in Brazil have no sanitation, you can’t really be spending a billion reals for a show”.
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“In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got”.
