Rio delivers a simple, but spirited, Olympic welcome

Rio de Janeiro, The glitter and glamour of Rio’s stunning Olympics opening ceremony gave way Saturday to bitter competition for the first medals of the Games dogged by a doom-laden buildup.

The FIFA World Cup, the globe’s second-biggest sporting event, has a brief opening ceremony before a match on opening night. There will be two cauldrons in Rio, one at the Maracana soccer stadium that is hosting the opening ceremony and another open to the public in downtown Rio.

With his historic eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and 22 total Olympic medals, Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Track and field will see Jamaica’s Bolt aim to defend his 100m, 200m and 4x100m crowns by clinching all three for the third straight Games.

The honor of officially declaring the games open fell to Michel Temer, Brazil’s unpopular interim president, who was loudly jeered and faced shouts of “out with Temer”.

Temer took over when impeachment proceedings started against President Dilma Rousseff, whose supporters accuse him of plotting against the suspended leader.

With the budget a fraction of recent games, the Brazilians presented a attractive, thoughtful opening ceremony that spawned celebrations across the city.

The Summer Olympic Games kicked off Friday night in a display of spectacular pageantry befitting one of Latin America’s most evocative nations.

“The heat is melting the icecap”, a voice intoned in the Maracana Stadium.

“The Olympic dream is now a wonderful reality”.

“Brazil welcomes the world with open arms”, Carlos Nuzman, President of the Rio 2016 Committee, told the crowd.

Brazilian singer Paulinho da Viola sang the national anthem to set off the show of laser lights and elaborate dances highlighting Brazil’s history and rise as an emerging power.

The Lausanne-based court said barring them from the Games “does not respect the athletes’ right of natural justice”.

One of the warmest cheers of the evening was given to a team consisting of refugee athletes-the first ever at any Olympics. “There is a lot of merit to that, but at the same time the Chicago bid was technically very strong utilizing existing venues and infrastructure that was positioned to put on an excellent Games from both a cost and functional perspective”, said Clark, who is also an expert in the business of sports.

The crowd roared when Bundchen sashayed from one side of the 78,000-seat arena to the other, as Tom Jobim’s grandson, Daniel, played his grandfather’s famous song about the Ipanema girl “tall and tan and young and lovely”.

An early opening sequence depicted the birth of life, culminating in the sprouting of a green entanglement of leaves from the stadium floor depicting the Amazon rainforest.