OLYMPICS. Friday night Vancouver welcomed the world to the XXI Olympic Winter Games with an Opening Ceremony that attracted record viewers. According to CTV, a record 13.3 million Canadians watched the entire 3 1/2-hour ceremony from beginning to end making this the most-watched opening ceremony for a non-U.S. based Winter Games, second only to the U.S. audience that watched the opening of the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

The celebration opened with a snowboarder jumping through Olympic rings at the stadium, "Welcome to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games," he announced at the bottom of the ramp to the cheering crowd.

As the athletes paraded into the BC Place arena, Greece as usual led the way honored as the inaugural Olympic host, while dignitaries including Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge were looking on. Albania entered the arena next, followed by Algeria and Andorra, and all remaining countries parading in alphabetical order. When the Georgian National Olympic Committee entered the stadium wearing black armbands in remembrance of luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili, who had died in a training accident earlier in the day, the crowd rose for a spontaneous standing ovation.

During the Ceremony the Olympic and Canadian flags were lowered to half-mast for Kumaritashvili and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, and John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organising Committee, offered their condolences in a joint statement, both wearing black ties of mourning.

"It's not something I had prepared for, never thought I would need to be prepared for," Furlong said urging the athletes later on to compete in the Georgian luger's honor. "May you carry his Olympic dream on your shoulders, and compete with his spirit in your heart," Furlong added.

The roster of well-known Canadian performers at the Opening Ceremony included amongothers Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams sharing a duet, Sarah McLachlan playing the piano and singing Ordinary Miracles, and k.d. lang singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

A group of fiddlers played on a stage adorned with giant maple leaves as river dancers twisted and turned around on the stage. Suspended from above, a young person drifted above an image of wind-blown wheat to celebrate the Prairies through the eyes of the youth.

Then, at the climax of the three-hour show, with four torch-bearing Canadian sports heroes in the spotlight, Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky had the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron, ending a torch relay that had travelled more than 45,000 kilometres through Canada.

Although a technical error ruined the symmetry as one of four pillars designed to rise from the stadium floor and form the Olympic cauldron malfunctioned. Speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan was left unable to join in the lighting but instead saluted the crowd with her torch.

The shared emotion of the Ceremony added to the feeling of global solidarity as about 2,500 athletes from a record 82 countries are preparing for 16 days of competition, vying for medals in 86 events including the newly added ski-cross competition. First-time Winter Olympic participants include the Cayman Islands, Columbia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia. The overall favorites include Germany and the United States, which finished first and second four years ago in Turin.

In the end Jean officially proclaimed the Games open and the Olympic flag was carried in by eight other Canadian luminaries.

FISalpine.com
Sunday 14 February 2010