Brazil’s flag being hoisted during the ceremony.
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The British contingent received a rousing ovation from the crowd in the cavernous stadium, where a flamboyant spectacle of sound and colour typical of a Brazilian carnival welcomed the 206 guest nations competing in the 31st summer games.
“He can and will become the first athlete in swimming to win the same event in 4 consecutive Olympics”, Thorpe wrote on Instagram on Friday.
The country’s interim President Michel Temer declared open the first Games ever in South America on Friday.
With numerous Games’ 11,000 athletes and dozens of heads of state in attendance, the opening ceremony is the first major test of Rio’s preparedness.
While the Opening Ceremony in Rio had a Brazilian flair, it also included the traditional Olympic elements. Organizers said the opening ceremony aimed to send a message of tolerance and respect.
But the party will kick-off after the most trouble-plagued build-up to an Olympics in history, with a biting recession, double-digit unemployment, soaring crime and a public health crisis caused by the Zika virus just a few of the social problems ravaging the city.
The celebratory atmosphere followed fresh protests earlier when about 3,000 people with placards saying “No to the Olympics!” gathered outside a luxury hotel where many athletes are staying. “So I’m protesting against the lack of finances for our schools and for the way our salaries are only paid in installments”, said teacher Guilherme Moreira Dias, 38.
After taking office when leftist president Dilma Rousseff was put on trial in the Senate for breaking budget rules, Mr Temer has taken Latin America’s largest economy – and one of the world’s most unequal countries – to the right. She refused to attend the ceremony, leaving Temer in her place with a hostile reception from the crowd predicted.
Brazil has deployed some 85,000 police and troops, roughly twice the number at London’s 2012 Olympics, to protect locals and the half million tourists expected to visit the city. The Olympic flag was raised and the Greek national anthem was performed. The IOC’s decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russian Federation over revelations of a state-sponsored doping program opened the door to legal turmoil. That left the precise make-up of the Russian team in limbo. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee confirmed the Russian team would be made up of 271 athletes, with 118 eliminated because of the drug scandal.
The first gold medal should be awarded on Saturday in shooting.
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Track and field will see Jamaica’s Bolt aim to defend his 100m, 200m and 4x100m crowns by clinching all three for the third straight Games. I can’t wait to see him make history again at these Games.
