RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 6 - Brazil showcased its rich history and cultural heritage, combined with Rio�s famous Samba dance, as the 31st Olympic Games was officially launched with a subtle yet powerful message of global warming plaguing the world in a simple but passionate opening ceremony here.
Brazil organisers put their passion for football aside and made climate change and depletion of natural resources as the central theme in a thought-provoking nearly four-hour-long ceremony to signal the opening of the 17-day extravaganza, which will be competed by more than 11,000 athletes from 209 countries, including India, and a refugee Olympic team.
Brazil�s Acting President Michel Temer declared open the Games, the first to be held in South America, in the presence of International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach, who gave a lengthy speech, and United Nations head Ban ki-Moon.
�I declare the Rio Olympics open, and celebrate the 31st Olympic Games of the modern era,� Temer said to formally signal the commencement of competitions as the Rio night sky was lit with fireworks emanating from the Maracana Stadium.
After the formal declaration of the Games, Brazilian 2004 Athens Olympics marathon bronze winner Vanderlei de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron after former tennis world number one and three-time French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten brought the torch into the arena to the thunderous applause of spectators.
Having witnessed many memorable clashes on its pitch, the 78,000-capacity Maracana Stadium today bore testimony to Brazil�s effort to make the world a better place, and how! It was, in a way, putting aside the trouble-torn build-up that the host city faced from a Zika virus threat, to slumping economy and cost overruns.
�It is not enough to stop harming the planet, it�s time to begin healing it. This will be our Olympic message: Earthlings, let�s replant, let�s save the planet,� said the creators of the opening ceremony.
Following the tradition, Greece, the birthplace of ancient Olympics, led the athletes� parade with the host country Brazil coming last. The countries marched in alphabetical order based on the spelling of their names in Portuguese.
Led by its only individual gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, who is in his swansong Olympics, as the flag-bearer, the Indian contingent entered the stadium as the 95th country. Around 70 Indian athletes (out of 118) and 24 officials took part in the march-past with the male athletes wearing navy blue colour blazer and trousers and their female counterparts donning blue blazer and traditional saree.
In his record seventh Olympic appearance, tennis ace Leander Paes was seen waving at the crowd, while the spotlight among the female members fell on the likes of shuttlers Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponappa and gymnast Dipa Karmakar. Among the officials, who were part of the march-past, were chef-de-mission Rakesh Gupta and his deputy Anandeswar Pandey.
There were loud cheers for the Spanish and British teams with the popular tennis duo of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, both multiple-time Grand Slam champions, leading their respective countries on to the pitch holding aloft their national flags.
A 60-member Jamaica contingent walked into the pitch without its biggest star and champion sprinter Usain Bolt as the athletes were seen waving flags and blowing kisses.
Led by the most-decorated Olympian ever, swimmer Michael Phelps, a 500-member strong Team USA arrived in red, white and blue from head to toe.
Kenyan running legend and two-time Olympic champion Kipchoge Keino was conferred the first ever �Olympic Laurel�, a distinction created by the IOC to honour an outstanding individual for achievement in education, culture and peace through sport. The 76-year-old Keino won a gold each in the 1968 Mexico Olympics (1,500m) and 1972 Munich Games (3,000m steeplechase).
The ceremony was divided into 22 segments with the first 11 focusing on Brazil and its evolution. The first 45 minutes was about the history of Brazil and its evolution billions of years ago before the theme moved to planet earth. � PTI
