Olympics: Brazil interim president opens Rio Games

Creative director Fernando Meirelles and the other organizers of the Opening Ceremonies for the Rio Olympics could have ignored that sordid chapter in Brazil’s history, but they chose to acknowledge it instead.

In a video preceding the show, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the games “celebrate the best of humanity” and appealed for an Olympic truce, calling on “all warring parties to lay down their weapons” during the two weeks of sporting achievement.

“You have transformed the wonderful city of Rio de Janerio into a modern metropolis and made it even more attractive”.

“Our admiration for you is even greater because you managed this at a very hard time in Brazilian history. In this Olympic world, we do not just tolerate diversity, we welcome you as an enrichment to your uniqueness in diversity”, said the German. A former Olympic champion in fencing, Bach had a special mention for the newly inducted Refugee Olympic Team.

“It is frustrating to be so close to this spectacle and yet so far away, living in a place were we have no security, not even sewage”, Carmo said. Here is our Olympic answer.

President of the organizing committee Carlos Nuzman delivered an impassioned tribute to Rio and urged Brazilians to embrace the Games. Let’s live our dream together and stay together when circumstances challenge us.

Rio will have to defy steep odds to make this a success, for these Games have always been considered a disaster waiting to happen.

Once the athletes had entered the stadium, Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer declared open the games to jeers by some in the crowd of 60,000 spectators, a reflection of ongoing political repercussions from the impeachment proceedings against suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

Under the gaze of the city’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, former marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit an eco-friendly Olympic cauldron created to draw attention to the damage caused by fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. He eventually finished third.

Former tennis star Gustavo Kuerten brought the flame into the stadium and passed it on to ex-basketballer Hortencia Marcari, then De Lima took center stage.

Reports earlier Friday suggested that football legend Pele was too fragile to take part.

While the opening sequence of the ceremony included a nod to “Gambiarra” – the Brazilian talent for making something great out of nearly nothing – public anger Friday focused on the level of spending on the Games.

Hampered by budget cuts enforced by an economic crisis gripping the world’s fifth-biggest country, Rio eschewed the high-end production of previous opening ceremonies yet still managed to delight a packed crowd of 78,000 at Maracana Stadium with a carnival of lights, music and dancing.

Gisele threatened to steal the show when she strutted across the arena floor, with the world’s highest-earning supermodel admitting it was “the longest catwalk I’ll ever walk” in an Instagram post prior to the ceremony.

“We need help, and it seems freaky to beg when the city I live in is hosting the Olympics”, he said.

The show is the work of 35,000 professionals and roughly 12,000 volunteers. It featured 12 samba schools and required 5,500 costumes.

Host nation Brazil – understandably – was met by wild cheering from the parochial home crowd, who will be desperate to see their compatriots give a good account of themselves in the sporting competition to follow.

Iran picked a woman, archer Zahra Nemati, as flag-bearer for its team made up overwhelmingly of men.

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 here.Brazil organisers put their passion for football aside and made climate change and depletion of natural resources as the central theme in a thought-provoking almost four-hour long ceremony to signal the opening of the 17-day extravaganza which will be competed by more than 11,000 athletes from 209 countries, including India, and a refugee Olympic team.