The Olympic Games' opening ceremonies are a chance for the host country to celebrate the Olympic ideal and to showcase itself to a global audience.
Small wonder that over the years these ceremonies have been some of the most ambitious, spectacular shows ever devised.
Here are six of the most memorable Olympic opening ceremonies.
Athens (1896)
The very first Olympics of the modern era took place in Athens in 1896. By modern standards, the opening ceremony was a modest affair and many familiar elements of subsequent Olympics opening ceremonies were missing.
There was no Parade Of Nations, as that started in 1908 at the London Games. And, since there was no Olympic flame, there was no cauldron to be lit - that arrived in 1928 at the Amsterdam Olympics, and was lit not by an athlete, but by an employee of the electricity company.
Nevertheless, it was a grand event. Over 300 athletes gathered in the Panathenaic Stadium and, watched by a crowd of 60,000 spectators, Crown Prince Constantine made a speech welcoming the athletes. Then the King declared the games open and a 150-strong choir sang the newly composed Olympic Hymn.
Tokyo (1964)
The 18th Olympic Games were held in Tokyo in 1964, the first time the games had been staged in an Asian country.
In another first, the opening ceremony was televised live via satellite, so audiences around the world could join the 83,000 spectators in the stadium. 5,700 athletes representing 93 nations took part in the Parade of Nations before 8,000 pigeons were released into the sky, while fighter jets traced the Olympic Rings in smoke above the stadium.
But perhaps the most poignant moment was the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. Nineteen-year-old Yoshinori Sakai mounted the 163 steps to the cauldron and ignited the flame at three minutes and three seconds past noon, three being a propitious number in Japan.
Nicknamed the 鈥楬iroshima Baby鈥, he had been born on the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.
Los Angeles (1984)
Los Angeles is the home of the American movie industry, and if there鈥檚 anything Hollywood is known for, it鈥檚 putting on a show. So it鈥檚 not surprising that the opening ceremony of the 23rd Olympiad was a razzle-dazzle affair.
The ceremony had a predominantly musical flavour. Legendary film composer John Williams, the mastermind behind the music for blockbusters such as Star Wars and Jaws, penned the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, while a 700-strong marching band played music representing the different American states. Then 84 grand pianos appeared from between the stadium鈥檚 columns and played Gershwin鈥檚 Rhapsody in Blue.
But for many the most breath-taking moment was when 鈥榬ocket man鈥 Bill Suitor swooped into the stadium piloting a futuristic Bell Aerosystems rocket pack. He was paid $1,000 for the stunt, but years later revealed he didn鈥檛 get any free tickets!
Barcelona (1992)
The opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 was ground-breaking in that it started the tradition of the ceremony being held in the evening. That meant spectacular light shows and gargantuan fireworks displays became a regular feature of the opening ceremony.
The show featured giant puppets, a huge group of drummers marching from the stands, a vast wooden sailing ship battling with mythical sea monsters, and doves being released. Paralympic archer Antonio Rebello ignited the Olympic Cauldron by firing a flaming arrow over it.
A recording of the games' theme song Barcelona, a duet by Queen鈥檚 lead singer Freddie Mercury with opera superstar Montserrat Caball茅, was played on the night.
Sydney (2000)
The producers of the Sydney opening ceremony designed a striking whistle-stop tour of Australia and its history.
The celebrations kicked-off off with a spectacular display of equine skill, with 120 horses galloping into the arena and forming the Olympic Rings.
The ceremony then saw the stadium transformed into the Great Barrier Reef, the outback (compete with fire breathers to represent bush fires), and even the Neighbours-style suburbs, with dancers equipped with lawnmowers 鈥榤owing鈥 the Olympic Rings.
Perhaps the most dramatic moment arrived courtesy of a technical glitch. The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron by sprinter Cathy Freeman was delayed for a seemingly endless four minutes, when an engineering failure prevented the flame from climbing towards the Olympic Cauldron. Later on in the games, Freeman went on to become the first Australian Aboriginal person to win an individual Olympic gold medal.
Sochi (Winter, 2014)
Costing over 拢30bn, the Sochi Winter Olympics are believed to have been the most expensive in Olympic history to date. For comparison, the 2012 London Olympics cost 拢8.7bn.
The Russian Interior Ministry Choir gave renditions of Daft Punk鈥檚 Get Lucky and Queen鈥檚 We Are The Champions. Famous Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky featured heavily amongst the musical selections, which included a performance of Swan Lake, in which the dancers were bedecked in glowing strands which made them look like floating jellyfish.
Other highlights included the building of St Basil鈥檚 Cathedral represented by giant inflatable domes, and the show concluded with 22 tonnes of fireworks illuminating the night sky.
This article was published in July 2024
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