Samba is expected, being one of the cultural pinnacles of Brazil, and the ladies performing it are tipped to be very good looking, another thing Brazil is famous for. We are also willing to tell the world to stop attacking our home. The world is threatened because of global warming. “We are calling for action”, said Fernando Meirelles, one of the directors of the show. It will begin with a short film narrated by actor Giancarlo Esposito and will feature Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, as well as “nearly naked women” doing the samba. The Olympics are a good time for little-known athletes to make worldwide names for themselves, and maybe the biggest candidate for an American breakthrough star this year is Simone Biles, the star of the USA women’s gymnastics team.
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Organisers have kept light-tipped about the details of the ceremony and had not confirmed whether Pele would take part, repeatedly refusing to comment on who might light the cauldron – the symbol of the Games that remains lit until the closing ceremony.
Of course, with Pele’s absence, Olympic game fans around the world are left wondering who will have the honor of carrying the torch on its final leg, and lighting the ceremonial cauldron.
The Refugee Olympic Athletes’ team arrives for the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Unlike the opening ceremonies in Beijing in 2008 and London 2012, a financially constrained Brazil had little choice but to put on a more “analogue” show, with minimal high-tech and a heavy dependence on the vast talent of Brazil and its Carnival party traditions.
The floor of the stadium will be a vast stage for projections, a substitute for more expensive structures in a nod to Brazil’s economic troubles.
In all, 4,800 performers and volunteers will be involved in the show created to showcase Brazil as a garden of the world.
“Smile is the approach the Brazilians have toward life”, said Marco Balich, the executive producer.
Having won the rights to host the Olympics in 2009 during an economic boom, Brazil since slipped into its worst recession in decades and a political crisis that has deeply divided the nation of 200 million people.
US Secretary of State John Kerry says he is confident the Olympics Games will be “safe, sound, secure”, and the United States and Brazil are working together to ensure they are.
“May this be the moment for us to overcome hard times and to work as a team, to make our country and our world fairer and safer”, Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta said beneath the arms of the giant statue at the start of the route, flanked by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.
Holding signs reading “Fora Temer”, and “Temer Out”, some 3,000 activists came out in support of Rousseff who believe that her removal from office was a “coup” organized by Michel Temer, Rousseff’s vice president, who is now serving as Brazil’s interim president.
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Mr Temer, who took office in May, was meant to be presented alongside International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Fewer than 25 foreign heads of state were listed as attending, with others seemingly staying away to avoid giving the impression of taking sides amid Brazil’s leadership uncertainty. Rousseff’s impeachment trial is expected to end after the Olympics ends on August 21, which leaves the country with two presidents until then.
