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 glittering opening ceremony Rio de Janeiro on Friday, August 6.
Brazil organisers put their passion for football aside and made climate change and depletion of natural resources as the central themes in a thought-provoking nearly four-hour long ceremony to signal the opening of the 17-day extravaganza which will witness competition 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.
Following the tradition, Greece, the birthplace of ancient Olympics, led the athletes’ parade with the hosts 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 coloured blazers and trousers and their female counterparts donning blue blazers and traditional sarees. The archery, table tennis and weightlifting teams also skipped the opening ceremony.
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