Olympia

[dream_labyrinth]

The Olympian torch is burning again. In former times, whole Hellas would have kept peace for the time of the Olympic games. To demand world peace while the torch is burning would be too much to ask. But watching the opening ceremonies gave me the idea that there might be hope yet.
202 teams were gathered there. I didn't say 202 nations, as there were some teams without an officially acknowledged state.
Palestine has an own team, as has Taiwan. (It's called Chinese Taipei, and they aren't allowed to use their flag an anthem, but they are still there.)
Corea, again, has come with only one team for both states. Hongkong still has an own team, which surprised me quite a bit.
Serbia and Montenegro were, for the first time, one team.
Apart from Greece, I think the most applause and standing ovations were given to Iraq, finally being allowed at the Olympic Games again.
It is also interesting to see all these small states. Have you ever heard of Nauru? Or Timor-Leste? Some teams had only one athlete, but several officials. Looks really interesting walking in.
The event was great. They had a lot of fireworks, starting with the 5 rings burning. They had the stadium filled with water for a while. The coreography was very interesting, bridging the antique Olympia to today and remembering what Greece gave to the world, from sciences to politics.
It was definitely worth watching. Even for people who don't care much about sports.

Comments

[tuva.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually see the ceremony, but I saw some pics from it. Looked really awesome, especially the 5 burning rings (5 persons with a torch in a hand going around in sircles). Looked really nice!

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Actually, they had some burning stuff on the ground, and lit the rings with like a burning arrow. The idea was to make it look as if the arrow would come right from Olympia (they had a video from the original stadium there). The rings were really huge, too, taking up most of the space inside the stadium.

[call-me-harmony.livejournal.com]

It was spectacular to watch. I spent a good few minutes trying to work out if they had uprooted a tree to place on the stage or if the stage had been built around the tree.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I'm not suer whether it was a real tree at all. It looked pretty natural, apart from the fact that it was this light grey, and I don't know whether that is how olive trees look like.
Either way, it was great to have it there, being not only the symbol of Olympia, but also a symbol of peace.

[call-me-harmony.livejournal.com]

I so agree, the whole ceremony seemed to continually make the links between peace and the olympic spirit.