The Opening Ceremonies

I stayed up till almost 5AM watching the Opening Ceremonies last night. That is dedication. Luckily the ceremony was so fantastic that, apart from that last thirty minutes waiting for the final part of the torch relay and the lighting of the cauldron, I barely noticed.

First off, there was obviously an undercurrent of tragedy throughout the whole night because of the Georgian luger. It was heartbreaking to see the Georgian team marching looking so shell-shocked, many of them near tears, and at the same time it was nice to see the respect showed to them and Nodar by the solid standing ovation given to them. The minute's silence, too, was incredible; more than fifty thousand people standing in total silence was incredible enough to witness on TV, and it must have been quite something in the arena. I noticed that Elene Gedevanishvili didn't march with the team. I hope that she feels strong enough to continue her recent successes in Tallinn in honour of Nodar.

Otherwise, I kept myself entertained trying to spot as many figure skaters as I could. Obviously, Alexandra Zaretski, Julia Sebestyen, Kevin van der Perren and, of course, Stéphane were easy enough to spot, being the flagbearers for their countries, which was wonderful to see. Stéphane looked adorable, waving the flag around with a huge grin on his face. Within the delegations themselves, I spotted Cheltzie Lee, Ilja Glebov, Nathalie Pechalat, Isabelle Delobel, Stefan Lindemann, Stacey Kemp, David King, Penny Coombes, Tugba Karademir, and Meryl Davies. I really wanted to see more of Team USA, Italy, Russia, and Brian Joubert, but it was so difficult to spot figure skaters in the larger teams! I loved seeing how happy everybody looked to be there, especially the nations with tiny teams, and Cheltzie Lee just had the hugest smile on her face. The sole athlete from Algeria was also really cute, he looked just like a little boy and he looked kind of overwhelmed with the sheer size of everything.

The team uniforms were another thing that kept me amused during the marches. I have heard a few people saying they don't like the USA's uniform but I love it. I also thought the Italians looked way classy in their grey jackets with white trousers, and I loved the way the Swiss were in jeans. The Czech and the Finnish uniforms were, um, interesting. I loved the Bermuda shorts on the Bermuda team, and my opinion was kind of split on GBR's offerings. I decided earlier that, in fact, I do like it. It was mostly the way that John Kerr looked in it that made that decision for me.

I also thought that they put on a fantastic show. I loved the participation of the First Nations, and my favourite part was probably the prairies section, with just that one boy. I can't imagine how weird it must have felt for him to stand all alone in the middle of that huge floor and know that the entire world was watching him. Overall I loved the laidback, earth-y approach that they took to it, and the kind of intimate, party atmosphere that they went for, rather than a huge, show-y performance. I think it really set the tone nicely for the rest of the games.

I watched the ski jumping earlier, which was surprisingly fascinating. I have no idea how those guys stay in such a perfect position. They are literally flying. First gold of the games went to Switzerland - here's hoping that's a good omen for Stéphane!

xxx