In practically all Olympic games, the opening ceremony stood as the yardstick by which the success of the spectacle is gauged. Host countries make the opening ceremony of the Olympic games as a grand celebration that showcase not only the local culture but also the different sports venues, the clinical appearance of the Olympic village and also the security preparations to insure that everybody is well protected, that no untoward incident will ever transpire.
Take the case of the 2004 Olympic games in Greece, the opening ceremony alone has rendered the world in awe as it marked the first ever staging of the games covered live in high definition television, courtesy of NBC and NHK. It brought the unfolding of the opening ceremony to local TV screen worldwide in the most true to life images and in perfect color.
The opening ceremony of the summer games held on August 2008 had 72,000 spectators attending together with around 15,000 delegates or athletes representing 202 countries participating in the grand spectacle.
The opening ceremony started with a 28 second countdown - one for each Olympic staging held outside of Greece and with an amplified heartbeat as background. Then a blazing rocket representing a crashing comet seemingly coming out of the blue hit the stadium floor igniting a burning image of the Olympic rings. Then what followed is the grand display of the celebration of Greek culture and history with the appearance of a Greek lad obviously in a giant paper boat waving the
Greece flag.
Then followed by the parade of nations, with the flag of Greece leading way, and contingent of each nation together with their flags and bearer parading in alphabetical order. The last contingent to enter the stadium was that of the host country.
by:
The Flagman
