Opening Ceremonies

Opening Ceremonies were awesome. I sat between Dave Ogrean from USA Hockey and Matt Van Houten, head of the AAC (that's Athlete Advisory Council in Olympic speak). Matt was a former goalkeeper for USA Handball.....don't make a motion with your hand.... like you are hitting a ball when talking to a Handballer....it would be like comparing Curling to shuffleboard....they don't like it, and we don't like it.

We were seated at the first turn on the oval which was a pretty good vantage point for the evening.

Dave and Matt were great. But along with me, we were three relatively big dudes sitting close together wearing white smocks.  Yes...white smocks. Everybody in the arena was given an audience participation kit which included a drum, a drumstick, a flashlight, a candle, and the white smock. We were instructed to put on the smock right before we went live on tv......there were a lot of silly looking people with Dave, Matt and me easily being in the top 5 percent. 

The show began with a video of a guy snowboarding down some outrageously-looking steep mountain. He swooshed down and down the mountain as the accompanying music increased in intensity and right when the music reached its dramatic peak, the snowboarder came flying through the Rings which were just to my left and onto the arena floor some 50 feet below.   The crowd erupted and it was game on at the point.

The whole event was themed around the history and culture of Canada starting with honoring the Four Nations of Indigenous Peoples from Canada.  It went on to recognize many other Canadian oriented things from the Northern Lights to Killer Whales to Canadian Nationalism to the general heterogenity of Canada.....all with really spectacular special effects, with lighting and some of the acrobatics being the coolest.   I personally liked the tribute to the Celtic influence in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland....I wonder why?

Of course, the teams entering the arena and being announced was really cool. It was fun to watch how different the sizes of the delegations were. Greece came out first - obviously in deference to Olympic origins. But after that, it was alphabetical. Most of the initial delegations were small, and I got a kick out of the 3-4 person Bermuda team all wearing shorts. (I still want to know at what events they are competing?). The Cayman Islands team was also fun to see as I guess the flag bearer is a Brown student - my blackberry started chirping very frequently to inform me of that!

The first really big delegation was France. Speaking of which, there is definitely a big Franco-orientation to all of this. Everything is printed in English and French, and all of the announcements at the OC were in both languages, with French often taking the first spot.  I think I knew that intuitively before I got up here, but the French influence over the Olympics and general international diplomatic affairs has really become evident to me.

In any event, where was I?  Oh....the teams. So, without a doubt the entry of the Georgian team was very emotional. The entire audience stood and cheered.   I looked closely at the Georgian athletes and could tell they were in a very affected state.  I hope they found some small measure of solace with the crowd's response. Not to sound goofy, but I really felt like the world was trying to be with them at that moment in time.

After Georgia - given that the order was alphabetical - was Germany. As soon as they were announced, everyone in the entire place sat down.....I couldn't help but smirk at the irony of that.

The teams continued coming. And I enjoyed watching the Brits, knowing that there were Scots in the contingent getting ready to curl.  The Irish came soon after....I have no idea what they are competing in, but they got a big cheer from me. (Somebody needs to work on their uniforms....I'm colorblind and something still didn't seem right!)

Finally, it was time for Red, White and Blue.  Our delegation came out, and it was huge and it was awesome. It was really cool to see our guys down there following Old Glory.   I thought "Our country really needs more of these kinda moments.".
Next up was the biggest ovation of the night....Team Canada appeared on the floor, and the place went absolutely crazy....I mean really crazy.  It made me think that the Gamecocks should recruit some Canadians to bolster some of our cheering for 2001.  It was fun to see.

The athletes actually came in early and their procession ended with them in seats in the arena --- so they got to see a lot of the culture and visual effects which I thought was a good idea.  I know fomr the athletes I have spoken to they really had a fun time.

As the night came to its conclusion there was lots of speculation as to who would light the Cauldron. Lots of chatter about Gretzky and as well as some others....of course it was gonna be Gretzky, but I was holding out hope for Bob and Doug MacKenzie!   My hopes were not realized as the Great One was indeed the man. 

All in all it was an exciting night. I felt connected to the rest of the world unlike ever before, and I found a new appreciation and admiration for our northern neighbors.

Having said all that....its time for us to go win some medals!

USA!!!!