At Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, athletes, spectators and media from all over the world convened to usher in the Summer Games.
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Fans packed the venue for a three-hour performance of song and dance illustrating the history and culture of Brazil.
The event will start at 9:45 a.m. with a subdivision that includes 41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, who will be competing in her seventh Olympics, a record for a gymnast.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the refugee athletes were sending “a message of hope to the millions of refugees around the globe”.
“The Olympic dream is now a wonderful reality”. “In this Olympic world, we are all equal”.
This meant the first boos of the evening went to the team from Brazil’s traditional rival Argentina, although they were of the pantomime variety and the selfie-snapping Argentinians did not seem fazed.
Temer took over when impeachment proceedings started against President Dilma Rousseff, whose supporters accuse him of plotting against the suspended leader.
Temer also faced massive jeers from the crowd after he declared the Games open. Hosts Brazil got the biggest cheer along with the Refugee Olympic Team, while Russian Federation were received with mixed reactions in connection with a doping scandal which could have seen them barred from the Games.
Flagbearers included USA swim star Michael Phelps and British Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, another tennis great in Spain’s Rafael Nadal, and Iran’s Olympic and Paralympic archer Zahra Nemati in her wheelchair. Ghulam Mustafa Bashir of Pakistan led his contingent during the opening ceremony of RIO Olympics.
Each athlete was presented with a seed and a cartridge of soil to enable them to plant a native tree of Brazil, which will ultimately form an “Athletes Forest” made up of 207 different species – one for each delegation.
That set the stage for night’s final act: lighting the cauldron, which was done by de Lima, a late replacement for the unwell Pele. Former tennis star Gustavo Kuerten carried the torch into the stadium.
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These are hard times for a country that was enjoying rapid economic growth when Rio won the right to host the Games but is now in recession and with a government in tatters. Athletes will compete in 21 sports throughout the day.
