Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei De Lima had the honor of lighting the Olympic Cauldron.
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The jeers Brazil’s interim leader Temer was trying to avoid at the outset of the ceremony could not be avoided later on, though, as his short address to officially open the Olympics was drowned out by loud catcalls.
After a number of other performances, the athletes took to the stadium floor.
The celebratory atmosphere followed fresh protests, when about 3,000 people waving signs saying “No to the Olympics!” gathered outside a luxury hotel where many athletes are staying.
While Phelps could be seen waving the flag slightly as he walked into the stadium, it’s not known what he was doing the exact moment he walked by the Brazilian flag.
Day Two of the Rio Games features medal action in swimming, women’s road cycling, men’s fencing, judo and more.
A sweet start to the Olympics prompted the return of a familiar chant from the 2014 World Cup that had been pushed into the darkness by years of bad news.
The evidence wasn’t clear, but it is unlikely that Michael Phelps broke federal law at the Opening Ceremony in Rio on Friday.
The opening ceremony began at 03:00 by Baku time at the Maracana stadium. Their flag-bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya.
Symbolically, they were the last team to enter the arena.
With “USA” emblazoned on the back of his jacket, Michael Phelps carried the flag for the US team, the largest with 549 competitors.
On behalf of all 11,288 competitors (6,182 men; 5,106 women), Brazilian two-time Olympic champion sailor Robert Scheidt pledged that they won’t take banned drugs – an oath likely to ring false to fans after the scandal of government-orchestrated cheating in Russian Federation.
The spotlight of the night was on the Russian team, which has been whittled down to 271 athletes from an initial 389 following doping allegations.
When the Parade of Nations was finished, trees sprang up from the planters and rained confetti throughout the stadium.
Unlike the opening ceremonies in Beijing in 2008 and London in 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.
Meanwhile, with regards to the budget of the ceremony, director Meirelles said that costs were kept at a minimum due to Brazil’s recession. “It is not a good message for the world”.
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“But I just want a break, to feel proud of what we can do, too”.
