Your Favorite Opening Ceremonies

[hckošice 15,984]

1. Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008

3. London 2012

4. Athens 2004

5. Sydney 2000

6. Rio 2016

 

1. Vancouver 2010

2. Lillehammer 1994

3. Nagano 1998

4. Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018

6. Torino 2006

7. Salt Lake 2002

[intoronto 6,658]

I really don't pay attention to ceremonies. I do watch them, but they are largely forgotten when the competition starts.

[Grassmarket 4,156]

1 minute ago, intoronto said:

I really don't pay attention to ceremonies. I do watch them, but they are largely forgotten when the competition starts.

Agree with that.  Day -2 & -1 you get some action, then day 0 comes & there’s nothing going on! Plus they are always a phenomenal waste of money that just deters cities from bidding.  London 1948!

[hckošice 15,984]

1 hour ago, intoronto said:

I really don't pay attention to ceremonies. I do watch them, but they are largely forgotten when the competition starts.

 

+1

 

My fav moments:

The countdown before the start of the ceremony,

then the quick recap presentation of the previous games hosts

and then the main and only thing it is all about for me. the PARADE of NATION

and then the official oath and Olympic flag entrance because of tradition

and then the cauldron

 

After that I rewatch the parade of Nations once again and then go on right to the Day 1 of competitions

[dcro 10,210]

Artistic segments can either be very intriguing to watch (Beijing) or incredibly boring (Rio).

 

Not a fan of the oaths. We all know that both athletes and referees will cheat either way.

[Olympian1010 8,276]

6 hours ago, OlympicIRL said:

I have high hopes for the Tokyo ceremony. I hope they do a better job of the cauldron than London and Rio which I found to be underwhelming. (especially London’s cauldron). I want a big flame above the roof of the stadium, not some artistic thing tucked away in the corner of the stadium. 

With so many people placing high hopes on Tokyo’s ceremony, you have to wonder if it will be another flop like Pyeongchang. I know a lot of people want a ceremony that features robots, anime, etc., but that’s the part of Japanese culture I just don’t get at all. I want more traditional things like calligraphy, Mt. Fuji, Sumo, etc. shown and used in the ceremony. It will be interesting to see what Tokyo 2020 comes up with the end.

 

I think the era of big cauldrons is over. Axing big cauldrons is an easy way to show your commitment to an environmentally friendly Games (at least from a PR perceptive, since most of these host don’t run an environmentally friendly games).

 

I would love to see some more original cauldron designs though, like Baku2015’s eclipse, or Rio’s sun sculpture. 

[Olympian1010 8,276]

42 minutes ago, dcro said:

Artistic segments can either be very intriguing to watch (Beijing) or incredibly boring (Rio).

 

Not a fan of the oaths. We all know that both athletes and referees will cheat either way.

+ 1 on the oaths. I don’t have anything against them, they’re nice and all, but you’re pretty much spot on about everyone discarding them once the Games begin.

[Monzanator 4,846]

Postponing the Games and threatening to cancel them alltogether is a bad PR enough nobody will care what the cauldron looks like tbh. Forget the environement crap, people just want the Games to go ahead no matter what IMO.

 

Btw, nuclear plants are supposed to be environement-friendly but Japan will forever be linked to the Fukushima disaster so there's little hope to change that narrative.

[Olympian1010 8,276]

14 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Postponing the Games and threatening to cancel them alltogether is a bad PR enough nobody will care what the cauldron looks like tbh. Forget the environement crap, people just want the Games to go ahead no matter what IMO.

 

Btw, nuclear plants are supposed to be environement-friendly but Japan will forever be linked to the Fukushima disaster so there's little hope to change that narrative.

As someone who lives near/in a city that will host the Olympic Games within the decade, I can tell you that is very much not true. While it might be true amongst the members of this forum, that opinion won’t hold up in the general public or even a good portion of the Olympic Movement.

[Monzanator 4,846]

4 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

As someone who lives near/in a city that will host the Olympic Games within the decade, I can tell you that is very much not true. While it might be true amongst the members of this forum, that opinion won’t hold up in the general public or even a good portion of the Olympic Movement.

 

Los Angeles has Lakers and Dodgers. USA is probably one country that doesn't need to host any Olympics. Hell, it had a hard time to bid for athletics World Champs for 30+ years despite being a powerhouse in that sport. If people are okay with cancelling Tokyo and boycotting Beijing WOG then what's the point of even staging the Olympics in first place? Just abandon the whole project as 20th century relict