Controversies, from the banning of Russian athletes for doping to the myriad of domestic issues that had plagued Brazil, had dominated much of the build-up to the Rio Games but these were all put aside temporarily as Brazil sambaed the night away.
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IOC President Thomas Bach in his opening address said “This is the moment of the cidade maravilhosa”.
The celebration didn’t dwell on Brazil’s recent upheaval – its worst recession in decades, and the suspension of its president, Dilma Rousseff, who faces an impeachment trial, probably during the Olympics.
It was then left to Brazil’s acting president Michel Temer, who shared the VIP box with state leaders like France President Francois Hollande and Argentina’s Mauricio Macri, to declare the XXXI Olympiad officially open before 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medallist Vanderlei Lima lit the Olympic cauldron.
The Parade of Nations is always the Games’ first big test of stamina, and with new countries such as Kosovo and South Sudan taking their place in the pageant for the first time, as well as a team of refugee athletes, Rio’s race through the atlas was even more gruelling than usual. Azerbaijani team came to the stadium after the Austrian national team.
Due to Brazil’s most intense security operation ever, some among the 50,000 attendees faced two-hour-long lines as Brazil staged its most intense security operation ever.
“They’re talking about slavery?”
“This is a conquest”.
Before the entry of hundreds of the 11,000 athletes that will be competing in the Games, the playful rhythms of the ceremony gave way to a sober message about climate change and rampant deforestation of the Amazon.
Each athlete will be asked to plant seeds that will eventually grow into trees and be planted in the Athletes Forest in Rio in a few years.
The party wrapped up with a rousing parade of the city’s samba schools that compete in Carnival.
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Rio 2016 has had a hard upbringing with worries about the country’s ability to afford it, Rio’s preparations and sport’s credibility in the face of a divisive doping crisis, but South America’s first ever Olympics is now ready to entertain the world and perhaps revive a nation.
