Host Brazil, relying on its creativity and music to convey a message of sustainability to the world, conducted an impressive Olympics opening ceremony at the historic Maracana stadium on Friday.
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The opening ceremony 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.
French center Isabelle Yacoubou says “in France, we started to lose faith in people”.
As for the decision to broadcast and stream the opening ceremony on a one-hour delay, NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus said last month that while Rio would be the most “live” Olympics yet because it’s only an hour ahead of the East Coast, the network was delaying the opening ceremony “to give context to the show”.
Around 10pm, at least three helicopters were sent above the stadium with orders to find the drones and destroy them, according to reports.
Brazil has deployed an unprecedented force of 85,000 soldiers and police to ensure the security of the games, particularly in Rio, with a population of nearly 6.5 million people, where drug traffickers control large parts of its poor districts.
Security forces reportedly apprehended one drone but were unable to locate the others.
“Our admiration for you is even greater because you managed this at a very hard time in Brazilian history”, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, told the country during the ceremony at the famed Maracana stadium.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach made an appeal for unity in a troubled world on Friday as the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games got under way.
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. So what it is that he can present at the Rio Olympics?
Fernando Meirelles wanted the ceremony to be an antidepressant: “I hope the opening ceremony can be a kind of anti-depressant for Brazil”.
Brazil now has two presidents – Dilma Rousseff is suspended as she awaits an impeachment trial.
The honor of declaring the games open will fall to Michel Temer, Brazil’s unpopular interim president, standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff.
This brought us to the main speeches by the chairman of the Rio 2016 organising committee Carlos Nuzman and IOC boss Bach.
The show drew homegrown stars, like supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who walked across the stadium to the sound of bossa nova hit “Girl from Ipanema” and Paulinho da Viola, a samba songwriter who sang the national anthem with a string orchestra. Brazil welcomes the world with open arms. “They have to talk about that”.
The four-hour spectacle took the 78,000 spectators and athletes at the venue through a journey from the dawn of civilization to modern-day Brazil.
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Participating athletes were handed a seed of the country’s native trees after they paraded into the stadium.
