Dressed in a shimmering gown from controversial designer Alexandre Herchcovitch, Brazil native Gisele Bundchen sashayed across the Maracana Stadium to The Girl From Ipanema in what was her swan song as a runway model. However, the Olympics didn’t do themselves any favors with the Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday night and the TV ratings reflected that.
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This opening ceremony will be a celebration of Brazilian culture, of the pageantry, of the excitement, of the flare that this attractive nation has.
One of the warmest cheers of the evening was given to a team consisting of refugee athletes-the first ever at any Olympics.
Interim Brazilian President Michel Temer presided over the opening of the games inside Maracana Stadium, with dozens of heads of state in attendance.
Mohamed Daud Mohamed, left, and Maryam Nuh Muse, second from right, are pictured with another member of their contingent during team-welcoming ceremonies for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 4, 2016. Just prior to the games beginning, the strain on the city was clear as tear gas was used by police against protestors in a playground area near Maracana Stadium.
“Our admiration for you is even greater because you managed this at a very hard time in Brazilian history”.
Marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro lit the cauldron after an exuberant show of Brazilian cultural touchstones and breathtaking pyrotechnics – and a compulsory burst of samba.
The athletes were being given tree seeds, plus cartridge of soil.
Swimming legend Michael Phelps said the honor of being the USA flag bearer was something that he could not pass up. At his fifth and last Olympics, it was the first time the record holder of 22 medals had marched in an opening ceremony, having skipped previous ones to save energy for competition.
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.
The team of six men and four women is completing under the Olympic flag.
After the grandeur of Beijing’s opening ceremony and the high-tech, cheeky inventiveness of London’s, Rio’s was earthier and less swish but more sobering with its gloomy environmental look at the future and deliberate penny-pinching.
Two people, including a woman, have been shot dead in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, amid protests against corruption and overspending on the 2016 Olympic Games.
Millions of television viewers from around the world are expected to watch the three-hour ceremony Friday night, which comes as the country is reeling from political and economic turmoil.
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“In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got”. The race, including the world’s top riders, started on Rio’s famous Copacanbana beach and was due to be held over around six hours on Rio’s roads and up steep hills into the mountains behind the city.
