An audience of hundreds of millions of people cast its collective gaze towards British Columbia as final preparations were put in place for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony Friday.
A capacity crowd of 60,000 people crammed into Vancouver’s BC Place for the night’s festivities, with much talk online about who might light the Olympic cauldron (Wayne Gretzky is in the building!). The ceremony, which was slated to last more than two hours, began with the audience, each wearing different coloured ponchos, doing the hockey wave to create the effect of a clock ticking down.
But the first thrill of the night was from a video that appeared on giant screens, showing a snowboarder launching himself down a precipice and, seemingly, into the stadium. There, a real snowboarder shot down a ramp and through the Olympic rings, landing on the arena’s snow-covered floor.
Thousands of white clad attendees gave the arena a snow-covered appearance as the orchestra merged God Save The Queen merged and O Canada as dignitaries were introduced to the crowd.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police troop brought in a giant Canadian flag to huge cheers from the home crowd before 16-year-old jazz-pop singer Nikki Yanofsky, of "I Believe" fame roared into a (long and loud) rendition of O Canada.
Four large ice sculpture totem poles rose up from the floor and representatives of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-waututh and Lil’wat aboriginal host nations welcomed the crowd.
What followed was a giant drum circle involving aboriginal youth from across the country – Inuit, Metis, and the First Nations of the Prairies, the North and the East. That massive dance celebration continued as the athletes of the 82 nations of the 2010 Olympic Games emerged from the shadows with national costumes and flags aplenty.
Albanian alpine skier Erjon Tola enjoyed the honour of being the first one onto the ice with his national flag, followed by Algeria, Andorr and Argentina. It would be a long wait for Uzbekistan’s Oleg Shamaev, not to mention the Canadian Olympic team who, as host nation, appear last.
Chinese athletes appeared carrying Canadian flags, and as the ceremony continued, online commenters at Twitter pounded out 140-character missives relishing the spotlight on the Terminal City.
@Huckdoll wrote, "Oh my gosh, my four year olds are watching this in awe and it makes my heart so happy." @vic_toria tweeted, "Almost at the Canadian team. I’m ready for more tears." @candrie summed it up with, "politics aside… I am feeling a lot of pride right now – FINALLY"
Some of the comments were less patritotic and more observational and wry. @carleab wrote, "The forced disco dancing of the people welcoming the athletes as they walk in makes me feel sorry for them." We concur. @rkennery chimed in with "Sweden’s uniforms designed by Ikea… sucks the atheletes had to put them together with allen keys…"
In the competition for best pants, the Czech Republic came in with a red and blue camouflage outfit that brought on instant migraines for some observers. Azerbaijan competed hard for the most notable attire honour early but couldn’t compete with the magic 3D picture attire of the Czechs.
In the quest for the best looking team, it would be hard to pass by the stunning Italians, though the sole representative of Mongolia, in a golden national costume gown, gave it her best shot.
The Georgian contingent walked out with an appropriately downcast look, with the untimely death of 21-year-old luger Nodar Kumaritashvili very fresh in the minds of all present. The crowd stood in their honour as they walked the floor.
Kumaritashvili crashed in practice today and was flung from his luge into a supporting pole beside the track. He died of his injuries shortly after.
"This is a very sad day," IOC president Jacques Rogge said, wiping tears from his eyes at the start of an early afternoon press conference at the Main Media Centre. "The IOC is in deep mourning.
"Here you have a young athlete who lost his life pursuing his passion. He had a dream to participate at the Olympic Games, he trained hard ,and he had this fatal accident. I have no words to say what we feel." An equally shaken John Furlong, chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, had to pause and compose himself while speaking.
"We are heart-broken beyond words to be sitting here," he said. "I am sorry to be in this position to be reporting this to you. It’s not something that I have prepared – ever thought I would need to be prepared for."
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he expressed his condolences to the president of Georgia, calling the death a "terrible tragedy."
Harper said he’s planning to remain in Vancouver for the next few days to cheer on Team Canada.
"We’re all big sports fans in our family," he said.
Meanwhile, technical difficulties beset Olympic organizers in Whister during the Opening Ceremonies based on the slopes.
The main TV feed to the celebrations there shut down, showing only Vanoc commericals and footage of the crowd waving. Some of the crowd began leaving to see the ceremonies on their own televisions as rain fell.
In downtown Vancouver, thousands of people who had hoped to watch the opening ceremony from the LiveCity sites in downtown Vancouver were set for disappointment as crowds far outnumbered the available space.
Spectators are being turned away after being told the sites are completely full.
Similar crowds turned out in Richmond, where the O-Zone location saw queues nearly a mile long, from three different entrances.
More to come..
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