Let the 2010 Olympic Games begin

The Olympic cauldron was lit by four great athletes in front of 60,000 cheering fans Friday night.

The cauldron-lighting portion of the ceremony was handled in five stages.

First wheelchair hero Rick Hansen came in under the Olympic rings and handed the flame on to gold-medal-winning former Olympic speedskater Catriona Le May Doan. She passed the flame to Victoria hoops star Steve Nash, who gave it to skier Nancy Greene. She then passed it to Gretzky.

Le May Doan, Nash, Greene and Gretzky were supposed to light the cauldron, but due to a hydraulic issue only three of the four cauldron arms went up, so Le May Doan watched the other three light the cauldron.

The cauldron was designed to look like huge pieces of crystal bursting through the floor of B.C. Place Stadium. The cauldron arms were 16.5 metres long and weighed 7,500 kilograms each.

At the end of the opening ceremony, Gretzky rode in a pickup to Coal Harbour to light an external replica near the International Broadcast Centre.

The Olympic opening ceremony featured First Nations culture, Canadian rock stars and some spectacular effects.

Organizers had clearly learned their lessons from the negative feedback given to the hokey “ice-fishing and snowmobile” routine they staged at the end of the Turin 2006 Games.

In the ceremony warm-up, the 60,000-strong crowd were asked to wave flashlights which they were told would become the stars in the night sky and came equipped with coloured gels for a Northern Lights effect.

They were also asked to put on white ponchos to act as a “screen” to project images.

Seats cost between $185 and $1,118.

The crowd was also asked to practise beating on cardboard drums decorated with the logo of the Four Host First Nations and doing a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 countdown.

The floor of B.C. Place Stadium was covered in “snow” with ice blue Olympic Rings mounted high at the eastern end.

Leading down from the rings was a white ramp that looked like an indoor ski hill and at the other end an elevated stage was built to look like it stood on pillars of ice.

The preshow featured a performance by the Canadian tenors.

“There will be several measures taken on Friday evening at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games to honor the 21 year old luge athlete,” said organizers in a press release.

“The president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge and the VANOC chief executive officer, John Furlong, will honour the memory of Mr. Nodar Kumaritashvili during the ceremony. The Olympic and Canadian flags will be lowered to half mast, and the audience will also have the opportunity to participate in honouring him.

The Georgian National Olympic Committee and its athletes announced this afternoon that they will wear black stripes as they march in the opening ceremonies to recognize their teammate’s death. They will also place a black patch on the Georgian flag that will be raised immediately following the parade of athletes.

The ceremony started with fireworks before a snowboarder shot down a jump, through the rings and down a ramp onto the stadium floor.

Eight Mounties in red serge carried the Canadian flag after the introduction of Gov.Gen. Michaelle Jean.

Canadian flags waved as "O Canada" was sung by 16-year-old prodigy Nikki Yanofsky.

Four giant silver totem poles raised out of the floor. As the Four First Host Nations spoke in their own language, English and French, the arms of the totems slowly raised in welcome.

Then it was time for the parade of the athletes, led into the stadium by the team from Greece as hundreds of First Nations, Inuit and Metis performed traditional dances.

The crowd stood and cheered as the Georgian team was announced.

The 11 remaining members marched behind a flag trimmed with a black strip of cloth.

While the U.S. team got a big cheer, the biggest roar of the night was reserved for Canada.

The crowd stood and cheered as the team, dressed in red thigh-length coats and black pants and red-and-white tuques marched into the stadium.

They were led by flagbearer and speedskater Clara Hughes as drums pounded out an "O Canada" theme.

The first of a line-up of Canadian international superstars performed on a round white stage which rose up in the middle of the four totem poles.

Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams joined forces to sing a hard-driving rock number, "Bang the Drum," a song composed by Adams and Jim Vallance.

They sang, “Bang the drum louder, so the whole world can hear.”

Then as the totems folded back down into the floor. A sea of twinkling, multi-coloured flashlights were waved by the audience.

Snow fell from the ceiling as a lone Inuit figure walked in the Canadian winter landscape.

After more people joined him, he pounded a glowing staff into the ground and the Northern Lights shone in the roof of the stadium.

A giant illuminated spirit bear floated in the air.

The ice cracked, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans flooded in and a pod of orcas swam in, breaching.

Then as a grove of trees rose up, forming an Emily Carr painting, Sarah MacLachlan sang "Ordinary Miracle."

Ashley McIsaac played a Maritime jig under a huge harvest moon as red maple leaves drifted down on the crowd

A high-energy tap dance followed, with sparks shooting out of the dancers’ heels and a huge roar from the crowd.

The show was filled with more Canadiana as a reading from W.O. Mitchell’s Who has Seen the Wind? segued into Joni Mitchell singing "Both Sides Now."

As as a storm raged, mountain peaks thrust up from the main stage, representing the Canadian Rockies. Skiers and snowboarders did airborne somersalts against a mountain slope that morphed into a painting by Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris.

Rollerbladers wearing red and white illuminated suits sped around the arena, and red torches were held aloft by maple-leaf clad dancers.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge expressed “great sadness” at the death of the Georgian luger.

Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong dedicated the Games to the memory of Kumaritashvili and former organizing committee chaiman Jack Poole, who died last year.

At 8:33 pm, Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean proclaimed the 2010 Games open and k.d. lang sang the “song of peace,” Leonard Cohen’s anthem "Hallelujah" and the crowd waved candle-shaped flashlights and white projections of doves flew in the stadium roof.

The Olympic flag was carried by Betty Fox, mother of Terry Fox, actor Donald Sutherland, racecar driver Jacques Villeneuve, figure skater Barbara Ann Scott, singer Anne Murray, ex-military general, Romeo Dallaire, hockey great Bobby Orr and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette.

There was a minute’s silence for the Georgian luger as the Canadian and Olynpic flags were lowered to half-staff.