Today is Friday, I finished my office and reached home with an excitement of my Summer holidays that I could spend with my family. We all deserve a little break. After reaching home, I didn’t pay much attention to what my son is saying and was busy putting away my office bag. He said to me that Rio 2016 Olympics Opening Ceremony is going to be telecasted at midnight. Like, every father, I told him, staying late to watch programmes is not good for health and disturbs one’s sleep patterns. With a little disappointment, he walks away, and scheduled a recording of the programme on Sky so we all can watch next day. I went to bed, so did the kids. Close to midnight, I woke up for some reason and couldn’t get back to sleep. You could guess what happened afterwards. I headed straight to the lounge to switch on the television. Guilty pleasure!
There were a lot of things said about Rio 2016, it was all over the news, good, bad and ugly. I always think one should not come to conclusions quickly until it is all over. Yes, we all need to raise our voices, at the same time should not judge the book by its cover.
What Rio 2016 has achieved is quite remarkable in the face of turmoil, negative views that build up to the games, the country with economic recessions, greater financial equality and the political crisis it has immersed into. It only had a meagre budget to host the event, had concerns over Russian doping scandal, Zika Virus and problems with city’s security, infrastructure and venues. The people of Brazil are known to enjoy playing sports on the streets, endless partying at Copacabana beach, bringing carnivals to lighten the streets with parades, infusing authentic Samba dance moves in gatherings. The main landmark of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer status was bathed in the colours of the Brazilian flag ahead of the Olympic games that reflected their passion despite protests against the whole event.
Rio 2016 is the 31st modern Olympic games since they were officially started in Greece. This is one of the sporting events that needs no introductions. I can’t think of any school that doesn’t embrace their curriculums with athletics or sports, so they can dream to participate in Olympics and represent their nation one day. I’d like to summarise my experience of the opening ceremony first and then go into the individual elements that made this event truly exceptional.
The opening ceremony started in a spectacular style, had an original touch, reflected its true culture of Brazil, showed the immense passion of Brazilian people and brought the carnival atmosphere to the Maracanã stadium in Rio with projections beamed on the floor to tell everyone a story. It truly reflected cliché of the Brazilian culture and would have certainly moved even the sceptics. The ceremony itself gave a green games message, allowed athletes to proudly represent their countries in the parade, lit the traditional Olympic cauldron by someone with an inspirational story behind it and dazzled with spectacular fireworks that sparkled the whole city as the Redeemer watches from above. What an opening ceremony it was!
The event started with an emotional rendition of the Brazilian national anthem. The spectators inside the stadium were treated with mixed light displays, dance and music, the video projections portraying the various scenes highlighting Brazil’s culture and history starting from indigenous people, Portuguese explorers, African slaves, and Japanese immigrants. The performers jumped and danced across the projections on the giant buildings, symbolising today’s Brazil cities and a recreation of biplane invention by a Brazilian that flew out of the arena were few highlights of the event.
There are 28 sports with 207 teams and 11000 athletes participating in Rio 2016. The athletes made their way into the stadium with honoured representatives of each country carrying their national flags as the crowd greeted them. The local crowd exploded when the Brazilian team emerged into the stadium with loud cheers of ‘Brazil’ ,‘Brazil’ that brought the carnival atmosphere. A warmest welcome was given to refugee athletes who were the penultimate group to enter the stadium. The two time Wimbledon champion and 2012 Olympics gold medallist, Andy Murray, carried the British flag into the Maracana stadium. Abhinav Bindra carried the Indian flag and wants to finish on high in Rio 2016.The former marathon runner Vanderlei de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron in the absence of football legend Pelé, and Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer welcomed with a speech.
The message of green games resounded throughout the event, it collected seeds from each athlete that could be planted in the Athletic Forest later in Rio. Time and time again it portrayed the usage of recycling of materials, sustainability and care for the environment in light of the global warming and its commitment towards the Amazon deforestation.
The less budget did not dampen Brazilian’s spirit and showed how people could bring diversity without much usage of technology unlike the previous Olympic events. The Olympic infrastructure will be supplementary to the recent Brazil World cup football stadiums and will boost the Brazilian aspirations to compete in the competitive world of sport. I read an interesting article about athletes being stronger and faster than ever before. It argues that humanity as a whole wouldn’t necessarily be stronger or faster than we used to be. But the fact that we are still figuring out ways to achieve more and more is an incredible thing.
Every country is predicting their tally of medals in Rio 2016. The UK sport predicting between 47 – 79 in 25 sports that it is participating, and India’s Olympic medal count predictions is forecasted to be 8 in comparison to 6 medal haul in Olympics London 2012.
What more do we all need in an event that truly expressed its slogan of their first Olympic and Paralympics games in South America – Um mundo novo – A new world!
The manifesto in full of Rio 2016: A New World
Building a new world.
With new eyes, new examples, new heroes.
Making new friends, creating new families.
Breaking down barriers.
Respecting one another, what is different, alternative – celebrating what is new.
Promoting gatherings, mixtures, unity – peace can be one step away, right there!
Surprising with new gestures.
Adopting new attitudes: all you need is the desire to change.
Because life is movement, passion, transformation.
Together, we can transform the world.
And this victory will be for all of us.
Everything said in the above manifesto itself is truly motivational. I hope to see the world transform so the victory will be for all of us. I can’t wait to hear a fairy tale of stories throughout the Olympics. I hope you will also relish the sporting event in Rio as much as I do. Que Beleza Rio 2016!