Let the 2012 London Olympics begin!
The Olympics happens only once every four years so I wanted to watch the opening ceremony which was scheduled at 9 p.m. Friday, July 27 (London time). That meant getting up at 4 a.m. last Saturday because the Philippines is ahead by seven hours.
I did not regret waking up at that ungodly hour. Although it was not as spectacular and as extravagant as the Beijing Olympics version in 2008, there were enough visual delights to keep me awake. (I learned from the Internet that the Brits spent £27 million compared to £67 million spent in Beijing.) The presentation relied a lot on thousands of performers, thousands of lights installed in the seats of the stadium and the attention-getting pyrotechnics. There were a few flying effects and giant puppets but the production did not go overboard.
The understated production opener was staged by Danny Boyle who directed the Oscar's Best Picture for 2009, "Slumdog Millionaire." It was no surprise, therefore, that there were many film elements in the show.
For instance, the London Symphony Orchestra played the theme from another Oscar winner for Best Picture from the UK, "Chariots of Fire." Making a special appearance in a formal tux was Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean, performing in all seriousness on the keyboard. However, he was playing only one note with one finger for the entire piece. A clip from the movie was then shown, the familiar one with the track stars running on the beach, with one big difference. Atkinson is one of the runners.
One filmed segment had Daniel Craig fetching the Queen for a helicopter ride. Then there's a live shot of two skydivers playing Daniel and Her Royal Highness jumping into the Olympic stadium after which the real Queen made her grand entrance in the same dress that she wore for the film.
Then it was time for the athletes from the participating countries to enter the stadium. As a lady announcer identified the countries, it felt like the Miss Universe pageant where beauties from different countries were presented in their native attire. At the Olympics, each delegation was led by an athlete holding each country's flag
It was a geography lesson for me as there were countries I had never heard of like Tuvalu, Sao Torre and Principe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cape Verde, Republic of Moldova and Kiribati. If the Olympics had an award for best costume like the Miss Universe, I would give it to the contingent from Mexico. While teams from most countries wore the same uniform, the Mexicans donned different outfits with colorful variations of a unifying design.
The announcers seemed to have a detailed information sheet as they mentioned who was carrying the country's flag, how many Olympiads each nation had attended, how many medals they had won, which personalities to look out for in the competitions. However, they probably misread their notes when one of them said the Philippines was composed of 700 islands. They must have missed one zero since our country has more than 7000 islands.
Media always refer to them as North Korea and South Korea but for the Olympics they are known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Republic of Korea, respectively. The country with the longest name was Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
As expected, the host country had the most number of athletes with 556. Not far behind was the United States with 532. The Russian Federation also sent a large delegation with 437 while Australia came with 413. China, which boasted 639 athletes in the Beijing Olympics, sent a smaller contingent, 383, this time. The country with the least number of participants was Timor-Leste with two. Also sending small delegations were Brunei, Oman and St. Vincent and Grenadines with three each. I also discovered that there were athletes who did not represent any country and they marched with a banner that said Independent Olympic Athletes.
The ceremony was filled with celebrities. "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling read excerpts from "Peter Pan." Kenneth Branagh read lines from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest." David Beckham was show in a speedboat along the Thames as he traveled to the stadium with the Olympic torch. Tennis greats Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic were flag carriers for their countries, Russian Federation and Serbia, respectively while LA Laker Pau Gasol held the flag for Spain. Marching with the US delegation were basketball superstars Kobe Bryant and Lebron James.
The royal family was well represented starting with the Queen herself and the Duke of Edinburgh. I also spotted Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. US First Lady Michelle Obama was in the VIP stand and stood up to cheer the US delegation as her compatriots marched in front of the grandstand. Paul McCartney concluded the ceremony with a rendition of "Hey Jude."
Highly anticipated was the lighting of the Olympic torch. The names of David Beckham, five-time gold medalist Steve Redgrave and even the Queen herself were floated around months before. In the end, the coveted task went to seven young athletes who received the torches from seven Olympic legends. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali also played a part when the Olympic flag was brought in by seven personalities known for their humanitarian efforts.
The evening was a fitting prelude to the games when the athletes will exchange their uniforms for the required outfits in the different events where the following questions will finally be answered: Will Michael Phelps end up with the most number of gold medals in Olympic history? Will the US Dream Team breeze through their basketball matches despite the reported strong challenge of Spain? Will the Philippines finally win a gold medal?
