Olympic Opening Ceremonies

The Olympic Games ceremonies of the Ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of these Games; the modern Olympic games have opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the Ancient Games from which the Modern Olympics draw their ancestry. An example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2004 Games, the medal winners received a crown of olive branches, which was a direct reference to the Ancient Games, in which the victor's prize was an olive wreath. The various elements of the ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter, and cannot be changed by the host nation. This requirement of seeking the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) includes the artistic portion of opening and closing ceremonies.

The ceremonies have evolved over the centuries. Ancient Games incorporated ceremonies to mark the beginning and ending of each successive game. There are similarities and differences between the ancient Olympic ceremonies and their modern counterparts. While the presentation of the Games has evolved with improvements in technology and the desire of the host nations to showcase their own artistic expression, the basic events of each ceremony have remained unchanged. The presentation of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies continue to increase in scope, scale, and expense with each successive celebration of the Games, but they are still steeped in tradition.

Ancient forerunners

The Ancient Games, held in Greece from ca. 776 BC to ca. 393 AD, provide the first examples of Olympic ceremonies. The victory celebration, elements of which are in evidence in the modern-day medal and closing ceremonies, often involved elaborate feasts, drinking, singing, and the recitation of poetry. The wealthier the victor, the more extravagant the celebration. The victors were presented with an olive wreath or crown harvested from a special tree in Olympia by a boy, specially selected for this purpose, using a golden sickle. The festival would conclude with the victors making solemn vows and performing ritual sacrifices to the various gods to which they were beholden.

There is evidence of dramatic changes in the format of the Ancient Games over the nearly 12 centuries that they were celebrated. Eventually, by roughly the 77th Olympiad, a standard 18-event program was established. In order to open a Games in ancient Greece the organizers would hold an Inauguration Festival. This was followed by a ceremony in which athletes took an oath of sportsmanship. The first competition, an artistic competition of trumpeters and heralds, concluded the opening festivities.

Opening

The Olympic opening ceremony represents the official commencement of an Olympic Games. In recent Olympics, some competition has begun prior to the opening ceremony. For example, the football competitions for both men and women at the 2008 Summer Olympics began two days prior to the opening ceremony. Due to the entry of new events in the Olympic program, common since the 2014 Winter Olympics, some sports have also started before the opening ceremonies. The 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics were the two events had held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic strict protocols, the latter took place with some invited guests only.

As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the Opening Ceremony of a celebration of the Olympic Games. Most of these rituals were canonized at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.

Time of day

Since the 1996 Summer Olympics, the opening ceremonies have generally been held on a Friday evening. The opening ceremonies were held in the evening for the first time at the 1992 Winter Olympics, albeit on a Saturday. To facilitate a live, prime time broadcast on Friday night in the Americas, the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Seoul, South Korea was held in the morning local time, a move that faced criticism from athletes due to the excessive heat. Generally, no competition is scheduled on the day of the opening ceremony; between 1992 and 2021, this practice was codified in the Olympic Charter; however, some certain events like rowing preliminaries were held earlier in the morning on the opening day of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

The last opening ceremony held during the daytime hours was that of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan; the scheduling was chosen for logistical reasons connected to its grand finale, which featured a live, synchronized performance by five international choirs, linked to the ceremony venue via satellite.

Artistic program

The artistic program is what creates the idiosyncratic element of each ceremony. Coubertin's initial vision of the Modern Olympics featured both athletic competitions and artistic achievements. As the modern Olympics have evolved into a celebration of sport, it is in the opening ceremony that one can see the most of Coubertin's ideal. The opening ceremony are an important ritual of the Olympic games that represent a wide variety of features such as similar qualities and messages that link together local and global issues, as well as cultural similarities at the same scopes.

The artistic program of the ceremonies allows the host country to showcase its past,present and future in a comprehensive way. The current protocols, ceremonies typically start with the authorities presentation which includes the entrance of the head of state or representative of the host country and the president of the International Olympic Committee followed by the raising of the country's flag and the performance of the national anthem. The host nation then presents artistic displays of music, singing, dance, and theater representative of its culture, history, and the current Olympic game motto. Since the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, the artistic presentations have continued to grow in scale and complexity. The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, for example, reportedly cost US$100 million, with much of the cost incurring in the artistic portion.

Each Opening Ceremony has a theme selected by the host nation and have to be connected with the cultural program of that edition. During all the acts of the ceremonies, the host country's goal is to represent their cultural identity. For example, in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, the theme was “unity”. On May 12, 2008, only two months before the 2008 games, a devastating earthquake occurred in Sichuan. Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming was chosen to be the host country flagbearer, walking hand-in-hand on entering the stadium with Lin Hao, a nine-year-old boy who saved some of his classmates following the earthquake.

Parade of Nations

A traditional part of the opening ceremony starts with a "Parade of Nations", during which most participating athletes march into the stadium, delegation-by-delegation. It is not compulsory for athletes to participate in the opening ceremony. Because some of the first events of the Games may start on the day before, on the day, or the day after the ceremony, athletes competing in these early events may elect not to participate. Each delegation is led by a sign with the name of their nation or team, and by their flagbearer–typically a notable athlete of the delegation. As an act of gender equality, beginning in 2020 the IOC has allowed teams the option of having both a male and female flagbearer.

Since the 1928 Summer Olympics, Greece has traditionally entered first in honor of their role in the ancient Olympic Games, while the host nation has entered last. The 2004 opening ceremony provided a variation of this practice due to the Games being hosted by Greece; its flagbearer Pyrros Dimas led the parade on his own, while the rest of the Greek team entered last. Beginning with the 2020 Summer Olympics, the Refugee Olympic Team enters second after Greece, while the host nations of the next two Olympics enter in descending order before the current host nation (in this case, the United States, France, and Japan were the final three countries, as hosts of the 2028, 2024, and 2020 Games).

The remaining delegations enter after Greece and before the host nation in alphabetical order, based on their name in the host nation's official language; for example, the three Olympics held in Canada have used either English or French (as both are considered official languages of Canada), while the 1980 Summer Games, 1984 Winter Games and 2014 Winter Games used Cyrillic and the 2004 Summer Games used Modern Greek script. Host nations whose official languages do not use Latin script—especially Games held in Asia —have used different collation methods for the Parade of Nations; the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Winter Olympics sorted in traditional Korean Hangul script, while the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing sorted delegations by the number of strokes used to write their name using Simplified Chinese characters, and the 2020 Summer Olympics used the Gojūon ordering of Japanese kana.

There have been exceptions to this practice; in 1992, due to political disputes over the recognition of Catalonia (where the host city of Barcelona is located) as independent from Spain, and concerns over the Spanish language being given undue prominence over the Catalan language, all official announcements during the Games were conducted in French, Spanish, Catalan, and English (with the order of the latter three languages interspersed), and the Parade of Nations was performed based on their French names.

The organising committee for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris announced plans for its Parade of Nations to be conducted as a boat parade on the Seine river (with cultural presentations staged along the route), as part of their goals for the opening ceremony to be a public, non-ticketed event rather than be held in a traditional stadium setting. The plans call for the official protocol to take place at the Trocadéro.

Traditional events

After all nations have entered, the President of the Organizing Committee makes a speech, followed by the IOC president. At the end of his speech, he introduces the representative or head of state of the host country who officially declares the opening of the Games. Despite the Games having been awarded to a particular city and not to the country in general, the Olympic Charter presently requires the opener to be the host country's head of state. However, there have been many cases where someone other than the host country's head of state opened the Games. The first example was at the Games of the II Olympiad in Paris in 1900, which had no opening ceremony before as part of the 1900 World's Fair. There are five examples from the United States alone in which the Games were not opened by the head of state.

The Olympic Charter provides that the person designated to open the Games should do so by reciting whichever of the following lines is appropriate:

* If at the Games of the Olympiad (Summer Olympics): ''I declare open the Games of ame of the host city
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