Torino - Opening Ceremonies

Well we made it. As I write this, the Opening Ceremonies are in full swing. We had a hugely busy day today, checking all communication circuits with almost every venue, and especially with the Olympic Stadium.

So far, the show has been uneventful, and relatively uninteresting. I won't spoil the surprise for you, but the giant ski jumper is pretty cool, as are the Olympic rings. I'm sure the show would be more interesting with audio, but we are listening to the director and producer to make sure that there are no problems.

They've just started the parade of athletes (one half hour into the show), so we've probably got at least an hour of that before they get to the lighting of the flame. The Olympic flame will be at the top of a big tower outside the stadium (and close to my Media Village), so I'm wondering how they are going to light it. I hope it's worth staying up for!

Canada has 196 athletes here, and Danielle Goyette (age 40) carried the flag. She is captain of the women's hockey team. I actually met her in Salt Lake City after the team spilled out onto the street after the medal ceremony and she let me hold her gold medal.

On NBC's coverage here, Bob Costas was supposed to point out Canada's new Prime Minister, and I could hear the director calling for the "spotters" to find him in the audience, but Stephen Harper could not be located in time to get on the air by the time the Canadian team marched in.

North and South Korea marched in together under the banner "Koreas", marking the first time for them as a unified team at the Winter Olympics.

The Olympic torch relay will culminate in the lighting of the flame later tonight. There were 10,001 torch bearers in the relay, and my bet is that it will be Alberta Tomba (Italian skier) who is the final bearer.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Update: The show is nearly over (almost 3 hours long). The part after the athletes arrive is pretty good, especially the "climbers". The lighting of the flame and the ending have lots of pyro-technics. After the flame was lit, the director started to panic because it looked like the athletes and the crowd were starting to leave (even though there was more to come). Lucianno Pavaratti just finished singing, which I guess just goes to prove that the show is never over until the fat guy sings!

Here's a photo from inside the stadium, taken by Comm's comrade Tony Kremer...