Olympics is home, sweet home
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-14 06:58

Home, sweet home.

After 108 years away from its ancient birthplace and the city of its revival, the Olympic Games is home.

When the Athens Olympics lifted its curtain Friday night, a success seemed to be in the making just as the organizers promised as all the unpleasant memories of long debates and construction delays faded out in the spectacular opening ceremony.

The Olympic rings are lit up as fireworks explode during the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 13, 2004. [Reuters]

None of the previous Olympics hosts could boast of staging the Olympics "in the true spirit of the Games", the theme in Athens, which plays home to 10,500 athletes from a record 202 countries and regions.

Nor could a single host city make the athletes feel so close to the Olympiad as Athens, which is to stage the shot-put event in the Ancient Olympia stadium, where the first ancient Olympiad was believed to take place 2,780 years ago.

Greek President Constantinos Stefanopoulos declared open the Athens Games, which has 301 gold medals up for grabs over 28 sports and will run through August 29.

The opening ceremony of cutting edge technology brought the 72,000 spectators and billions of global audience through a symbolic and emotional journey reviewing Greek history and presenting a modern one in three hours and a half.

Four hundred drummers made the sound of a human heart-beat across the stadium before a flame raced across the stadium's 80-meter-high roof to light the logo of the modern Olympics - the five interlocking rings - on a man-made lake in the arena, symbolizing the Aegean Sea.

A boat carrying a child boy glided across the lake to be greeted by President Stefanopoulos and International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge as well as the Athens 2004 chief Gianna Angelopoulos Daskalaki.

Then came the centerpiece of the ceremony as a dream-like and colorful parade depicted stylized figures that looked as though they were brought to life from Greek frescoes, mosaics, sculpturesand paintings. The performance displayed a chronological procession of images ranging from prehistoric to modern times.

In the parade of athletes, 202 delegations filed into the Olympic Stadium in Greek alphabetical order.

The holy flame, after 78 days covering a distance of more than 78,000 km in its first ever global relay and lighting every prefecture of Greece, came into the stadium.

Atlanta Olympics Mistral gold winner Nikolaos Kaklamanakis lit the Olympic cauldron which will be burning for 16 days.

"As in the daytime there is no star in the sky warmer and brighter than the sun, likewise there is no competition greater than the Olympic Games," Greek poet Pindar wrote in the 5th century B.C..

It is so true that the Games, trying to make man the measurement of all things as in the organizers' vision, encouragedthe whole world to bury animosity and prejudice.

For the first time in Olympic history, Afghan women made their appearances in the most celebrated global sporting carnival as sprinter Robina Muqimyar and judoka Friba Razayee, both 18, represented their nation, which was welcomed back to the international fold for the first time since the fall of the Taliban regime.

Iraq received one of the loudest cheers from the crowd. One and a half years after the U.S.-led invasion which led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq sent a delegation of 46 to Athensto demonstrate their faith in peace, friendship and a better future for the war-ravaged country.

The Iraqi soccer team had already written an amazing chapter inthe sport Thursday when the team that couldn't play any of its qualifying games on home soil came from behind to beat title hopeful Portugal.

The joy of reunion also belonged to the Koreans when athletes from the DPR Korea and South Korea marched together under the Peninsula flag, reminding everyone of that very same touching moment in Sydney four years ago.

And the two sides may even go one step further in the next Olympics in Beijing as they are discussing the possibility of having a unified delegation.

But drug cheats are set to remain the dark side of the Games asKenyan boxer David Munyasia has been thrown out of the competitionafter failing an out-of-competition test.

Security has been another major concern for the organizers.

Since it is the first Summer Games after the terror attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001, the biggest ever Olympic security plan cost over one billion euros, three times budget of previous host Sydney.

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