By Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News –
LONDON — You can always count on a few things at an Olympic opening ceremony:
1. Bermuda’s team will march into the stadium wearing shorts.
2. The pageantry will include at least eight dozen children, hundreds of costumed characters who perform obtuse skits related to the host nation’s history and enough fireworks to smoke-choke the entire European Union.
(PHOTO: The Olympic cauldron burns in Olympic Stadium during the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England, Friday, July 27, 2012.)
3. A dramatic torch-lighting ceremony will take place, featuring a surprise flame igniter. Or igniters.
The London Games began with all of that and more here Friday night.
The much-anticipated pageantry to open the 2012 Games even including an elaborate film-and-reality segment involving James Bond (portrayed by actor Daniel Craig) and Queen Elizabeth (portrayed by the actual Queen Elizabeth). On film, they jumped into a helicopter at Buckingham Palace — then supposedly appeared in the helicopter above the stadium where “Bond” and the “Queen” parachuted out onto an adjoining property before the real queen walked inside.
The only problem: The filmed segment took place in daylight while the real-time parachuting happened after nightfall. Um, was anyone checking the continuity? Apparently not ceremony-producer Danny Boyle, who is a film director by trade.
The minor glitch, however, could not spoil the happy vibe — just as some of the well-publicized glitches during the lead-up to the Games melted away when the show finally got under way. The security was immense and almost smothering as long lines formed to enter the stadium. But the time printed on the tickets, 7:30 p.m., was purposely early to make sure everyone was inside by the true 9 p.m. opener.
Boyle’s show began with (no joke) some odd business involving live geese and sheep on a phony village green, which eventually parted and gave way to smokestacks of the Industrial Revolution, and then a flying fleet of Mary Poppinses. But eventually, teams from the competing nations paraded into the stadium — from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with Greece leading the way as the Olympic-originating nation and host Great Britain entering last, per tradition. The fashion show was just as much of a hit as usual.
Costa Rica showed up wearing sharp snap-brimmed hats. The Czech Republic athletes drew laughs by carrying umbrellas and opening them simultaneously at several points around the track. Mexico opted for psychedelic guayabera shirts. Spain had the tallest flag bearer in 6-foot-11 basketball player Pau Gasol.
And, eventually, yes, here came the USA wearing the infamous team outfits that were made in China. A bad political choice, but the world did not end. And no, USA flag bearer Mariel Zagunis did not dip the Stars and Stripes to the queen, following an American tradition. The flag bearers of other nations did not do so, either.
The athletes’ parade is so giddy and occasionally silly — hey, how about those wild mustard-colored blazers on Romania? — that you occasionally need to pause and remind yourself that this sort of scene never occurs any other time on our planet. People from around the world stride into a stadium with smiles on their faces. Hundreds and hundreds of them. That is never a bad scene.
And even though the parade took an hour and 43 minutes, the crowd still was able to issue a lusty roar when the British team entered the stadium with David Bowie’s “Heroes” playing loudly on the public-address system. On cue, 7 billion small pieces of paper — yes, 7 billion — were dropped on the crowd to represent the population of Earth. It was a moment.
But it was followed by a weird one. Rather than have the torch lit by a famed Olympic athlete of the past, London organizers instead gave the honor to seven current and mostly anonymous British athletes who were “sponsored” by the nation’s previous Olympic champions. The seven youngsters then stepped to the infield and touched their torches to a large one that rose from the ground. It was fairly dramatic but would have been more so with one of the icons doing it himself or herself.
Curiously, too, there was a pause of requested silence for British war dead and a later tribute to “loved ones who can’t be with us tonight” accompanied by a popular English hymn. This made it all the more puzzling that organizers ignored requests from widows to memorialize the Israeli athletes who died in a terrorist kidnapping at the Munich Games in 1972. This is the 40th anniversary of that Olympic tragedy.
But with that disappointing omission, these Games are off to a good start.
