The 21st Winter Olympics opened here on Friday night amid pomp and pageantry at the famous BC Place.
Canadian Governor-General Michaelle Jean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) president John Furlong and IOC president Jacques Rogge were among the 60,000 people who attended the grand opening ceremony broadcast live around the world.
Before the ceremonies, aboriginal youth from the First Nations — a term used to describe Canada’s native people before the Europeans came here — welcomed the guests to the mega sports show.
The ceremonies opened with a video of a snowboarder on the stadium screens, followed by a real snowboarder sliding down the snow-covered stadium floor, and followed by the singing of the Canadian national anthem.
Then athletes from the participating nations marched down the stadium.
The opening of the sporting mega-show was, however, marred by the death of 21-year-old competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili from Georgia who succumbed to his injuries after crashing into a metal pole while training at Whistler.
He was rushed to hospital where he died. “This is a very sad day. The IOC is in deep mourning,” said teary-eyed IOC president Jacques Rogge.
Being despite of the loss of one of the world famous athelete the spirit of the game continued and will last for 16 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment