The reasons for this were referenced in the main speeches of the night by the chairman of the Rio 2016 organising committee Carlos Nuzman and IOC president Bach.
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The first medal of the Games will be picked up in shooting on Saturday but hopes and dreams will also be fulfilled-or shattered-for cyclists, fencers, weightlifters, jodokas, swimmers, and archers as the first Olympic titles are determined.
Speaking afterwards the Scotsman said: “It was incredible to get to carry the flag and but also be around the rest of the British team and chat to the guys”.
The island nation may have just a single medal ever (a silver in 1996), but it sparked a buzz around the stadium and across the Internet with oiled-up flagbearer Pita Nikolas Taufatofua.
Wearing red, white and blue, Team GB soaked up the electric atmosphere, with some taking the obligatory selfies while all waved to the crowds. But now it’s an awkward mix: “we’re happy about the Olympics but fed up with Brazil’s situation”.
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.
The spreading health crisis of the mosquito-born Zika virus kept some athletes away.
Despite all of these, the country has stood firm, insisting it is ready to host the first Olympics to be held in a South American city and it partly proved this on Friday, August 5, 2016 when it brought the world to a standstill as over 2 billion people turned their attention to the Maracana stadium for the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
There was similar derision reserved for team Russian Federation, who were jeered as they entered the Maracana – this year’s games coming after the world of athletics was rocked by the scandal of state-sponsored doping of the country’s athletes.
The man with the most glorious Olympic history, as far as individual performances are concerned, barely ever shows emotion.
Graphic projections of world cities being swamped by rising seas set Rio de Janeiro’s otherwise fun and festive gala apart from the more self-congratulatory and lavish celebrations that Beijing and London wowed with in 2008 and 2012.
However, before the ceremony got under way at 8.00pm local time (12am Irish time), thousands of anti-government protesters marched less than eight miles away at the Copacabana.
Temer took over when impeachment proceedings started against President Dilma Rousseff, whose supporters accuse him of plotting against the suspended leader.
It is unclear why Temer was not announced, although the protests against the cost of the Games that have marred the build-up to Rio’s big moment on Friday would suggest organisers were concerned he would be jeered.
Brazil’s Gisele Bundchen strutted across the arena to the iconic “Girl From Ipanema” before Greece, home of the ancient Olympics, led out the colourful athletes’ parade.
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But by that point the Maracana was in full-on party mode as a succession of dancers, musicians and volunteers raced through routines meant to showcase Brazil’s diversity and history, even finding time for a lecture on environmental issues.
