At the Games in Rio de Janeiro to fight for 306 sets of medals in 33 kinds of sports will lead more than 10 thousand athletes from 206 countries.
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The opening ceremony of the XXXI Summer Olympic Games has started in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, APA reports. Phelps was 15 when he made his first Olympic team in 2000, and he has competed in every Games since.
Wearing red, white and blue, Team GB soaked up the electric atmosphere, with some taking the obligatory selfies while all waved to the crowds.
A marathon bronze medal victor in Athens in 2004, he has been held up as a model sportsman after refusing to give up when a protester attacked him in that race, slowing him from first to third.
Then Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer has declared Rio’s Summer Games to be open.
The Parade of Nations saw a record 207 teams march – with Kosovo and South Sudan doing so for the first time – and the entrance of the Olympic Refugee Team was among the ceremony’s more emotional moments.
In a country of great economic inequality, the opening ceremony celebrated the culture of the favelas, the slums that hang vertiginously above the renowned beaches of Rio and ring the site of Friday’s spectacle, the famed Maracana stadium.
Explosives robots were brought in and the items were later deemed safe.
That was followed by the raising of the Brazilian flag and the national anthem, expertly performed by renowned sambista Paulinha da Viola.
Hundreds of people turned out to challenge the torch’s arrival in Rio out of anger over the cost of hosting the event that began against a backdrop of civil and political unrest in the country. He took over from suspended President Dilma Rousseff, who is facing an impeachment trial and tweeted that she was “sad to not be at the party”.
Athletics legend Kipchoge Keino, chairman of the Kenyan Olympic Committee, lifts the Olympic Laurel Trophy at the end of the Opening Ceremony.
The ceremony concluded with more fireworks and a stunning visual show as the Olympic cauldron was lit and risen into the air.
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.
But Brazil’s creative energy and infectious rhythms are unbeatable and celebrations spread to the streets around the stadium.
Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen’s sashay across the stadium to the sound of “The Girl from Ipanema” will no doubt feature in newspapers around the globe, as will a clever section that featured a biplane appearing to fly out of the stadium and circle the city’s signature “Christ the Redeemer” statue.
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According to early estimates, NBC’s full opening ceremony between 8 and 11:30 p.m. posted a 16.5 overnight household rating (which should come out to about 30 million viewers), compared to 23.0 during London 2012 (40 million viewers).
