Just watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics and as is typical for such events it was a surreal bizarre affair, but it was beautifully fascinating a depiction of the history and myth of Ancient Greece the birth place of the Olympic games. Starting with the Goddess of fertility a procession toured the stadium finally finishing with a pregnant woman whose belly began to glow with an inner light as she stepped into a pool of water from which rose strands of light depicting the milky way.
Then we have the procession of the national teams in order of the Greek names using the Greek alphabet so we start with Saint Lucia followed by the team from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and in the middle of the procession we get Zambia and Zimbabwe who usually would be at the end. Commentator Barry Davies does his usual exemplary job of commentating on events outside of his normal expertise and presents is with a mix of sport and geography.
Facts by Barry: Australia has the second biggest team again and are one of only 4 teams to have competed in every games. The national anthem of Vanuatu is Yummy Yummy Yummy apparently. British Virgin Islands has only a single competitor. Comoros a country I’ve never even heard of. Strange. A Korean team which is a joint team of both North and South Korean competitors.
BBC coverage of the Olympic Games starts here.
Tags: sport
