President Barack Obama says he’s ready to cheer on the U.S. Olympians.
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Whistler municipal officials are inviting spectators to watch the event on big screens at the village’s Olympic Plaza.
A beaming Andy Murray led Team GB’s Olympic hopefuls into the Maracana as the 2016 Rio Games officially opened to great fanfare. Images showed swirling clouds of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the Earth’s atmosphere and images of world cities and regions – Amsterdam, Florida, Shanghai, Dubai – being swamped by rising seas. He is easily Brazil’s most recognizable athlete – or former athlete – though he stopped playing nearly 40 years ago.
Even as the opening ceremony got under way bomb disposal teams were deployed to examine two suspicious bags near the beach volleyball arena on the Copacabana.
The unofficial anthem of Rio de Janeiro is being featured prominently as the opening ceremony gets underway. Doing what the internet does best, opening ceremony viewers took to Twitter to voice their best, most educated guesses (or voice their steadfast belief that, despite numerous reports and multiple confirmations, Pele will, in fact, carry the torch and light the cauldron, regardless), because no one likes to be left in the dark, right? That event begins at 6.45 p.m. PT. He wrote Aquele Abraco not as a celebration piece, but as his farewell to Rio.
Beforehand, the first recipient of the Olympic Laurel asked the athletes of the Rio Games to follow him and help support the youth of the world.
You have transformed the city of Rio de Janeiro into a modern metropolis and made it even more attractive.
The opening ceremony did not mean a warm reception for everyone. She refused to attend the ceremony, leaving Temer in her place with a hostile reception from the crowd predicted.
She also said that the Games were a distraction at a time of national economic crisis.
The honour of declaring the games open will fall to Michel Temer, Brazil’s unpopular interim president, standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Only Brazil’s team, which marched last, drew a louder roar from the crowd than the refugees.
But inside, the pre-show is underway. And they have already shown discontent in several ways. She brought it to the stage, then De Lima brought it up the stairs and held it aloft for 60,000 to cheer. Their presence created long lines and traffic jams.
The Maracana Stadium hosts the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games as Brazil looks to put the doom and gloom of the past few weeks behind it and raise the curtain on what will be 17 days of the best the South American nation has to offer. But the International Olympic Committee is continuing to hear Russian cases, and more athletes could be allowed to compete before the games end.
Many are aghast at the $12 billion Olympics price tag in the midst of Brazil’s deepest recession since the 1930s.
Fewer than 25 foreign heads of state were expected, with others seemingly staying away to avoid giving the impression of taking sides amid Brazil’s leadership uncertainty.
But Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov has protested that his country has “faced” discrimination in the handling of the sanctions.
Among those who are coming: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The cauldron in central Rio is expected to be lit by a runner after the opening ceremony is finished, Howe said. Pele scored the 1,000th goal of his career there in 1969, and the field has been the site for countless major soccer matches at many levels.
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The crowd chanted “Temer out” and called for Rousseff’s return.
