Top 10 Greatest Olympic Opening Ceremonies
you most beautiful and most amazing top tenors of Olympic glory I'm just about putting my popcorn in the microwave but this year's Olympic opening ceremony so to drum up some excitement I've had a look a whole load of previous Olympic opening ceremonies and I wanted to hit you up with the top 10 best of the bunch so in the spirit of sportsmanship here we have the top 10 Olympic opening ceremonies of all time.
10-Amsterdam 1928
In our number ten we have Amsterdam 1928 so why Amsterdam 1928 when very little footage still exists compared to the Bobby Dazzlers of recent years two reasons really the footage that does exist makes people look like they're having the best blooming time ever and because this was a landmark opening ceremony that affected forthcoming opening ceremonies so by this I mean that this was the first year of the modern Olympic flame in ancient Greek times the Olympics included a flame however the torch and flame cauldron as we know it were brought to life in Amsterdam in 1928 now the much famed Dutch architect Jan wills designed the cauldron which then sat atop Amsterdam's olympic stadion when the huge bowl of fire was lit the audience watched with the utmost or moving on to a way more recent Olympics we have the first of a few American hosted Olympics.
9-Salt Lake City 2002
In at number nine we have the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics of 2002 so this is the only Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on our list and although not technically considered in the same category as the Summer Olympics we thought this gorgeous opening ceremony absolutely deserved a spot on our list now this was a very important Olympic opening ceremony as it was the first since the horrific 9/11 attack on American soil the start of the ceremony was marked by a flag that flew in the World Trade Center on 9/11 brought into the stadium by Rice Eccles by the way all of the turf in the stadium was replaced by ice and the performers performed on ice skates for ever marking the ceremony as the one with all of the skating on top of that they got five Utah Native American tribes together who all rode in on horseback and performed several traditional welcome stomp dances ice horses and polar bear puppets national pride what more do you possibly want the Dixie Chicks alright then they've got it.
8-London 1948
In at number eight we have the London 1948 post-war Olympics in a similar spirit to the Salt Lake City Games London was tasked with the job of opening up the first post-war time games after a hiatus during the bloodshed and aftermath now these are a time of austerity so none of the usual Opening Ceremony flashiness was permitted it but it was the spirit of the event that made this one of the best opening ceremonies of all time people were very thankful for the peace and the Olympics offered a sense of worldwide healing as nations came together for the first time since the fighting now the initial footage shows the torch being lipped by a chap in exceptionally tighty whities with a backdrop of the good old White Cliffs of Dover they then show a V for victory and peace and sportsmanship to start the proceedings the king that arrives and all 80,000 spectators were pretty darn excited there was a 21-gun salute and a very impressive flag parade yes it was suspicious but that's what many countries needed.
7-Atlanta 1996
In our number seven we have Atlanta 1996 so of course the centennial of the modern Olympic Games was going to be huge and who does it better than America taking place in the Centennial Olympic Stadium the ceremony was quintessentially American with many a star-spangled banner marching bands cheerleaders college sports and Chevrolet trucks the event also paid homage to the south and its home state of Georgia and it was televised to an audience of a whopping thirty nine point seven million what really set the Opening Ceremony apart however is the role of Muhammad Ali despite suffering from Parkinson's Ali carried the torch to light the Olympic Cauldron marking the start of the games like he actually stands up strong with the torch and lights the flame which floats up magically lighting a huge cauldron well done Muhammad Ali he will forever be remembered for this moment.
6-Barcelona 1992
In at number sex we have Barcelona 1992 so in theory Atlanta were trying to outdo their predecessors Barcelona Barcelona whacked on a crew think spectacle they even included Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury recorded his absolute banger Barcelona with Queen before he died and it was used in opening proceedings along with some pretty crazy Greek mezzo-soprano another highlight were that there were many colorful and elaborate costumes of the performers there was also a cool Bionic Running Man puppet and I really enjoyed the innovative way the cold room was lips' Paralympic Archer Antonio ravallo fired a flaming arrow lit by the olympic torch in one of the most the at Racal Lighting's to take place in history delighting the crowd of around 70,000 spectators.
5-Tokyo 1964
In at number five we have Tokyo 1964 now this Olympic opening ceremony was hugely important as it was the first to be broadcast live internationally and can you believe it it was also the first to be televised in color this now allowed spectators across the globe to feel fully immersed in the action now Japan had previously missed out on hosting the previously awarded Olympics of 1940 but they missed out because of their involvement in World War two now the flag was raised to a gun salute and hundreds of colored balloons were released into the Olympic Stadium which before the days of high budget spectacles must have looked absolutely beautiful especially on those colored TV screens on top of it all the person chosen to light the cauldron was born on the same day that the her Ashima bombs were dropped making this a political statement that the past was behind Japan.
4-Athens 2004
In number four we have Athens 2004 now the Greeks very much store the 28th Olympiad as a homecoming for them as the ancient Greeks were the founding fathers of the Olympics not because of this the ceremony very much focused on harking back to those days celebrating Greek gods and the body as an athletic form in the beginning the stadium was flooded with water as a boy rode in on a paper style boat this was followed by a beautiful color parade depicting the transition from ancient times to modern later there was a very impressive video screen - stadium trick a single flame was flung out of a scream into a pool in the stadium which then ignited with the Olympic rings rising in James created by avant-garde choreographer Demetrius Papa wanna the ceremony was very much a success.
3-Sydney 2000
Getting very close in at number 3 we have Sydney to thousands so it is the games that then Olympic Committee president won Antonio Samaranch would call the most beautiful opening ceremony he had ever seen presented by Australia's channel 7 Sydney's millennial Olympic opening ceremony focused on themes of the aquatic and Aboriginal recognizing the owners of the Australian land originally a lone rider on a stock horse entered the stadium followed by a hundred and twenty other riders all holding Olympic flags which was really really quite the image the horses circled to form Olympic rings it was amazing from the outback from the mountains to the sea the Australians welcome to the world in a real Aussie way they also used the theme music from the Man from Snowy River which was amazing now my favorite part of the ceremony was the luminescent presentation of the vibrant undersea life and of course the big good a flag because good a world straddles got this you know quick deploy the jellyfish puppets yeah I promised not to see that ever again.
2-London 2012
In our number two from my hometown we have London 2012 so I'm really lucky as I got to experience a few games in the London Olympics of 2012 firsthand as I was living in the city at the time my fat mates and I even had an opening ceremony party at our house where we projected this absolute gem on the big screen I mean it was truly amazing Danny Boyle did an excellent job with his Isles of wonder theme so it started with British musician Frank Turner surrounded by a field of actual sheep then this is when the craziness started happening this sparked a very impressive Industrial Revolution theme with tall buildings popping out of a grass Mound it was amazing now the best part of it all was that the Queen was involved that's right the Queen did a skit with James Bond who by the way parachuted into the stadium having dropped out of a plane then haughty David Beckham rocked up with a speedboat yielding the torch I mean does it get any better yes it does the cauldron was finally lit and was an absolute feast for the eyes it was a flower design 204 individual flaming petals one for each competing nation can we just again reflect on how the Queen acted alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond the Queen of the United Kingdom what an absolute babe.
1-Beijing 2008
Okay so we have reached that all important moment in our most amazing top 10 Olympic opening ceremonies what I'm going to reveal the number one spot now although London 2012 was incredible it has to be Beijing 2008 so aside from the incredible design of the Beijing Olympic Stadium known as the nest the opening 10 minutes were by far the most exhilarating ever after dramatic countdown hundreds of fireworks took off around the stadium followed by a display of Chinese culture with thousands of martial artists who then did their very own glow-in-the-dark movement now this was followed by even more fireworks triggered across the city so just keep on getting better from there on out now this was co-directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and Chinese choreographer Zhang Jing another show featured a cast of over 15,000 performers the for our ceremony explored images of ancient Chinese culture scripture and color just like so much color that were geishas aerial performances the works all in all the ceremony was reported to have cost over a hundred million u.s. dollars to produce seriously although I can believe it having watched those fireworks like that must have been a serious gunpowder budget so Beijing was the most expensive opening ceremony to date with London in second place having spent seventy five million dollars is money really what why is your great opening ceremony all in all is it worth it do let me know your thoughts in the comment section down below.
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