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The Opening Ceremony: Let's Party!!

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in 2016 Olympics

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chitowngirl
chitowngirl

Sigh, I'm old, I remember Mark Spitz swimming and Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon.

ExplainItAgain
ExplainItAgain

I guess I'm weird, but we (US) see enough of our athletes, I watch the parade to see the athletes from all the other nations!

Shaynaa
Shaynaa

Wow, how big of NBC to not overlook Micronesia.  They should get a medal.  Just ask them.

Aliconehead

Aliconehead

1 minute ago, tanyak said:

I'm curious about Neymar. Given the worldwide popularity of soccer, I would argue he's the most well-known athlete around the world at these games. I know it's his home country, but I have a hard time believing he's doubling up in the athlete's village. 

Having met some of a past Brazilian team during the 94 World Cup, I would agree. Between the arrogance and then trying to get laid, roommates would be a no go for the bigger names. Plus soccer players are like gods in Brazil

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Snipsa

Snipsa

It's during international spectacles like these where I remember how blessed we are here in South Africa with our sports coverage. Not on the local free to air channels, but the satellite package (DSTV with its at least 8 Supersport channels [more during olympics, world cups? Etc])- which we are blessed to own.

 

The opening ceremony was broadcast live (starting 1am local time) and has just started rebroadcasting (6am). No commercial breaks at all. Very knowledgeable commentators from all over - most noteably UK, Aus and obviously South Africa.  

 

And we have four (or more) channels dedicated to olympic coverage - if I recall correctly every sport in which a South African competes is broadcast live, and many where there are no South Africans competing are also broadcast live.  We really cannot moan about lack of coverage or even commentator bias. Just the time zone that sucks a bit this year :-(

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

I'm almost happy to hear NBC's coverage is as shitty as the live commentary Channel 7 had in Australia. I'm pretty sure the only reason our commentator managed to avoid victim-blaming Oscar Pistorius's fiance is because South Africa marched so quickly he only had time to bring up the Caster Semenya story yet again (when it was already dated by the time she carried their flag in 2012).

I also agree the thing behind the cauldron looks spectacular (though the cauldron itself is just the bowl thing, and... bleh), but I feel like it was over so quickly the flame was an anticlimax this time around. I definitely prefer a shorter lighting sequence compared to London's overdose of sentimentality and Sochi's lighters literally running through 200m of backstage corridors to get to the cauldron itself, but still. Gustavo Kuerten and one other woman before the lighter was too short, and they barely got to actually carry the thing. Surely there are enough notable Brazilian athletes that they could have done the full lap around the stadium?

Daisy

Daisy

7 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

I'm almost happy to hear NBC's coverage is as shitty as the live commentary Channel 7 had in Australia. I'm pretty sure the only reason our commentator managed to avoid victim-blaming Oscar Pistorius's fiance is because South Africa marched so quickly he only had time to bring up the Caster Semenya story yet again (when it was already dated by the time she carried their flag in 2012).

I also agree the thing behind the cauldron looks spectacular (though the cauldron itself is just the bowl thing, and... bleh), but I feel like it was over so quickly the flame was an anticlimax this time around. I definitely prefer a shorter lighting sequence compared to London's overdose of sentimentality and Sochi's lighters literally running through 200m of backstage corridors to get to the cauldron itself, but still. Gustavo Kuerten and one other woman before the lighter was too short, and they barely got to actually carry the thing. Surely there are enough notable Brazilian athletes that they could have done the full lap around the stadium?

let's be thankful that

  • it didn't get stuck. (see: Vancouver. See. Sidney). 
  • That no one had to ride a truck to get to the actual torch (see Vancouver). 
  • That it actually lit. 

(laugh) but yah the actual cauldron is the bowl thing, which is a boo. I thought it was the whole spiny thingy. 

selkie

selkie

At one point, Nauru made its money from phosphate mining. Since the mines closed, it's been the usual mix of selling intangibles to other countries (passports, taking money from Taiwan to recognize it as a country, etc.) and a close relationship with Australia where the Aussies have provided both direct aid as well as outsourcing some problems to the island- in the 21st century off and on, it's been a detention and processing center for immigrants/refugees trying to reach Australia by boat who are intercepted by the Australian coast guard.

The prison has been a decent source of local jobs- they apparently don't have a huge chunk of their national economy dependent on remittances from citizens working abroad in Australia or New Zealand like many other Pacific islands do.

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Superpole2000

Superpole2000

(edited)

I watched both the American and the Canadian coverage. The American coverage was better. The one hour delay is inexcusable for sporting events, but with the ceremonies, that delay allowed NBC to show every country's entrance. They even doubled back to show Estonia (and Estonia's enthusiastic flag bearer) after focusing on the American entrance, which was classy to do. The Canadian coverage just dropped countries for commercials, which is the opposite of classy.

Also, the Canadian coverage was just generally depressing. Co-host Peter Mansbridge brought his grumpy old man act to the microphone and told us a negative fact about half the nations. The American commentary was heavily scripted, but at least it better matched the ceremonial mood.

But the biggest gaffe of the night was that neither Canadian commentator had any clue about the torch lighting. They didn't tell us who the final torch carrier was, even going so far as to assume he had to be giving the torch to someone else (someone more famous?) at the top of the stairs. A complete amateur job, which they continued minutes after by never actually revealing who lit the cauldron.

Edited by Superpole2000
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kokapetl

kokapetl

4 hours ago, Kromm said:

You don't think there's more than a little hypocrisy in them showing that?  They not only have polluted their own country pretty badly in recent years, but also one could even argue that Oil is the backbone of their economy (albeit the industry being on hard times now), and Oil--their product--is one of the core causes of global warming.

So they are lecturing on something they're helping to happen.

CO2 emission per capita in metric tons. There's no hypocrisy.
 

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

How does a teeny island nation like Nauru (8 square miles!) even function? Cool to see them.

Short answer: Australia's government pays them ridiculous amounts to run an illegal refugee processing centre there. (Australia's commentators were kind of hilarious when trying to skirt around the issue. "Well, we hear a lot about Nauru, don't we?" and then that was basically the end of it.)

Edit: I wasn't paying attention to it at the start, but I'm pretty sure Australia's only commercials during the Parade of Nations were during the big teams so you still saw them get announced.

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Minneapple

Minneapple

1 hour ago, denbblbg said:

Yeah, the Today show crew wasn't good about saying who the flag bearers were.

NBC showed the flag bearer's name, a map of the country, population and size of the country's Olympic delegation. 

The Iranian flag bearer--very inspirational. Nothing tops the sheer joy of the athletes in the ceremony. Glad NBC showed every country's entrance, since I love the parade of nations.

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MVFrostsMyPie

MVFrostsMyPie

10 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

The Iranian flag bearer--very inspirational. Nothing tops the sheer joy of the athletes in the ceremony. Glad NBC showed every country's entrance, since I love the parade of nations.

I definitely teared up over that (especially being a persian woman myself). I only lived there for the first 5 years of my life, but I still look forward to seeing people that look like me during the parade of nations more than when the US gets announced. :)

Also, so proud of fellow American women for outnumbering the males... just like they do in college. ;)

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

42 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

NBC showed the flag bearer's name, a map of the country, population and size of the country's Olympic delegation. 

The Iranian flag bearer--very inspirational. Nothing tops the sheer joy of the athletes in the ceremony. Glad NBC showed every country's entrance, since I love the parade of nations.

Damn. We got the stock-standard IOC country label and that was it. And they didn't even have the little three-letter codes like they normally do so you could use them as hashtags (which Twitter wants you to do; when you tweet one of those codes like #USA or #JPN or #NZL or whatever, the country's flag is added automatically, with the refugee team's #ROT hashtag using a map of the world).

kokapetl

kokapetl

1 hour ago, SnideAsides said:

Short answer: Australia's government pays them ridiculous amounts to run an illegal refugee processing centre there. (Australia's commentators were kind of hilarious when trying to skirt around the issue. "Well, we hear a lot about Nauru, don't we?" and then that was basically the end of it.)

Edit: I wasn't paying attention to it at the start, but I'm pretty sure Australia's only commercials during the Parade of Nations were during the big teams so you still saw them get announced.

They seemed to only air that Telstra ad by itself, and about 3 times in total.

I could've used some more commentary from Channel 7, I had no idea what was going on after the Elmos armed with flails vs the Cousin Itts bit. Why the giant cheese grater seed pod things had choreography made sense in the end, but who the singers were and what they were singing about received no commentary.

Why was that wall built then immediately taken down before being transformed into a plane?

friendperidot

friendperidot

Overall, I enjoyed it. I was watching most of it with my 17 yr old great-nephew and he's never paid attention to the Olympics before. He's more slacker than sportsman. I enjoyed the history of Brazil, I really don't know much about it. I didn't know that there was a large Asian population. I rather liked that the opening was more simple, because of money or whatever, I didn't care. I think that for too long, each host country has been trying too hard to outdo previous years. 

I love the Parade of Nations, I love the costumes of all the countries, except for the Ralph Lauren logo on the US uniforms, that was uncalled for. I love the uniform, very classic, but the pony should have been much smaller. I loved the pause between Micronesia and the US, it gave them their moment and they all deserve that. I usually tear up with the US, but for some reason, not tonight, really thought I would, I've been sick and I'm very emotional. But when Brazil entered the stadium, I was in tears! They were so happy!

I'm old, I remember the 1972 games, but I was in college at the time and it didn't get my attention. I'm aware of the deaths of the Israeli athletes and saddened, but at the time, I just didn't pay much attention to the news. The 1976 Winter Games were the first time I really watched, I had the flu and was stuck on the couch in front of the tv, now I'm a junkie. I was so excited about the Atlanta games, but the opening ceremonies was when my old tv decided to turn from color to black and white and I couldn't see the ceremonies in color, was pissed. Got a new tv about a month later, moved the black and white to the bedroom where it again switched the color back on and still works to this day and is still in color, but it's in storage with most of my things until I get moved again. Now of course have a huge flat, HDTV screen and it was a lot cheaper to purchase than that 19" in 1984.

I so enjoy the nations with the few athletes. I really wish NBC would focus more on other athletes from other countries. Of course, I like to see the US, I'm a patriotic woman, but to me the Olympics are about more than just the US winning medals. I'm a sucker for things like the Jamaican Bobsled Team and an athlete who trains alone in a public park with little funding. I would like more focus on the smaller sports, I like swimming and diving and beach volley ball, but I would love to know more about the fencing, even the weight lifting, the judo and a thousand other sports that I know little about. I don't have cable so I am stuck with NBC. 

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NUguy514

NUguy514

I loved these; actually, they might be my favorite opening ceremonies.  Of the recent opening ceremonies, I wasn't a fan of Beijing's desperate-to-impress largesse at all, I thought London's were very charming, but I really loved the color and energy of these; it felt very Brazilian and very Carioca to me, in a good way.  I visited Rio about four months after the World Cup, and despite its problems (and there are obviously a LOT), it's an amazingly beautiful, wonderful city.

And that Tongan flag bearer...looooooord have mercy...

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andromeda331

andromeda331

The Parade of Nations is also my favorite part I love seeing people from different countries and how excited they are. Such an amazing moment. I liked learning about Brazilian history.  I keep hoping each Olympics will have a cool way of lighting the cauldron like they did in Barcelona and always disappointed but it was really cool who they picked to light the cauldron.

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CherryMalotte

CherryMalotte

I feel like I want to start a drinking game where I take a shot every time they show Christ the Redeemer for the next two weeks.

Jesus would approve...remember the whole water into wine bit.  We'd all probably be snockered by dinner time, depending on how many times the NBC camera drone sweeps by it during the morning and afternoon.

I've been re-watching clips this morning and on the whole it was a really nicely done opening ceremony.  The cauldron pinwheel is really cool, I enjoyed the lighting - sometimes simple is better.   London was huge and I can hardly remember it.  

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MyAimIsTrue

MyAimIsTrue

1 hour ago, CherryMalotte said:

I've been re-watching clips this morning and on the whole it was a really nicely done opening ceremony.  The cauldron pinwheel is really cool, I enjoyed the lighting - sometimes simple is better.   London was huge and I can hardly remember it.  

I liked London but it was quite the spectacle.  I agree with your assessment that sometimes simpler is better as then other factors come in to play such as creativity and I found a lot of that last night.  The rainforest was gorgeous.

The only opening ceremony I didn't get to see over the last 40 years was Athens in 2004.  That was the night Hurricane Charley roared through and we lost power, cable, phone, everything by 9:00PM.

mehtotheworld

mehtotheworld

So is there a consensus on best dressed country? I have to say I thought the Indonesian flag bearer's top portion was beautiful, and the man and the woman in the fancier getup behind her looked amazing--I thought NBC would explain what was going on there, because I'm a clueless American, but it was amazing regardless. Great Britain was a disappointment until I saw the back, which I thought was pretty cool. Italy and France were confusing, considering their famed sartorial sense. Canada's outfit was mystifying (but I saw some approval online, so what do I know?). Germany's was depressing. Australia gets a bad rap, but I didn't hate the jackets. The Barbados outfit for women was really cute. Botswana looked classy as hell. And poor Ireland and Sweden!

I know people are bemoaning the Ralph Lauren polo horse, but I saw a prominent EA7 logo for Italy, a Puma logo for Jamaica (at least three of them!), etc. And I'm really glad we've moved away from the depressing Roots era (which also prominently included its logo, which was just ROOTS based on pictures I've seen). I didn't hate the outfits, though I think Ralph Lauren has done better in the past. I think I just like the preppy yachting look, because South Korea was also a big hit for me.

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