Memorable Olympic opening ceremonies

Alan Walker

Memorable Olympic opening ceremonies

The opening ceremony of a Summer Olympic Games raises the curtain on the biggest and most eagerly awaited competition in world sports. The tradition of an inaugural event to mark the commencement of the Games goes back to 1896 and Athens, when the first official opening ceremony took place amid modest fanfare and applause. The ceremonies have evolved to become exciting and dramatic artistic extravaganzas, and provide an opportunity for the host nation to showcase their history and culture in dazzling, inspiring, and breathtaking fashion. With the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony scheduled to take place on July 23, 2021, all eyes are on Japan and what kind of opener Tokyo has planned.

Click through and be reminded of every Summer Games opening ceremony to take place since the end of the 19th-century.




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Ancient Games

There were no opening or closing ceremonies to speak of during the ancient Olympic Games. Instead, victorious athletes were presented with an olive wreath or crown harvested from a special tree in Olympia.




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1896 Athens Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The first modern Olympiad took place in Athens in 1896, where the first official opening ceremony was held and where the Olympic Hymn, or Anthem, was first played. Also, Athens 1896 was opened by a head of state (King George I of Greece), a duty that subsequently became the norm.




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1900 Paris Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The 1900 Summer Games in Paris were held as part of the 1900 World’s Fair. The combined event meant that there was no official Olympic opening ceremony as such. Instead, athletes put on a display at Bois de Vincennes, where most of the competitions took place. Today it’s the location of the campus of the French national institute of sports and physical education. The photograph, credited to La Vie au Grand Air, records the June 17, 1900 demonstration.




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1904 St. Louis Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Held in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States, the 1904 Summer Olympics marked the first time that the Olympic Games were held outside of Europe. The opening ceremony was a low-key, somewhat muted affair. Instead, St. Louis is remembered for one keystone development: the current three-medal format—gold, silver, and bronze for first, second, and third places—introduced for the competition.




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1906 Athens Summer Games Opening Ceremony

A curious anomaly in Olympic history, the 1906 Athens Summer Games became known as the 1906 Intercalated Games. They were designed as part of a new schedule, where every four years, in between the internationally organized games, there would be intermediate games held in Athens. The opening ceremony is remarkable for the fact that it featured for the first time a version of the Parade of Nations, where athletes entered the stadium as national teams, marching behind their flags. The Intercalated Games were never held again.




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1908 London Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The first official Parade of Nations took place during the 1908 Olympic opening ceremony in London, at White City Stadium.




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1912 Stockholm Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Presided over by the Swedish royal family, the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games opening ceremony saw the first mass gymnastic display performed as part of an Olympic opening ceremony.




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1920 Antwerp Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The first Olympic Games held after the end of the First World War took place in Antwerp. The opening ceremony was notable for the first use of the Olympic flag, the first time the Olympic oath was taken by a competitor, and the first release of homing pigeons as a symbol of peace.




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1924 Paris Summer Games Opening Ceremony

By previously hosting the 1900 Summer Olympic Games, Paris became the first city to hold the event twice. A canon was used in the opening ceremony, a noisy but dramatic first. Pictured are the neatly attired women of the Great Britain team during the ceremony.




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1928 Amsterdam Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games opening ceremony saw the first official Olympic flame lit for the duration of the games, a tradition that continues today. In addition, the Parade of Nations started with Greece, which holds the origins of the Olympics, and ended with the host country, a tradition which has also continued ever since.




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1932 Los Angeles Summer Games Opening Ceremony

LA’s opening ceremony was attended by one of the largest crowds in opening ceremony history, with 105,000 spectators cramming into the Memorial Coliseum.




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1936 Berlin Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The inauguration on August 1, 1936 of the Berlin Summer Games marked the first time the Olympic torch relay was employed. The event also saw the first cauldron lighting by an individual. And on the field, the first mass artistic display took place. All this, of course, was overshadowed by Adolf Hitler using the 1936 Games as an opportunity to promote his government and ideals of racial supremacy and antisemitism.




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1948 London Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The world had to wait 12 years before the next Olympic Games. With the Second World War over, London hosted the 1948 Games. The opening ceremony was eagerly anticipated, with many hoping it would rekindle the Olympic spirit and ignite a new sense of hope and understanding after the end of the worldwide struggle in 1945.




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1952 Helsinki Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Thousands of carrier pigeons were released over the Olympic stadium in Helsinki during the opening ceremony to symbolically convey the news of the 1952 Games to other countries.




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1956 Melbourne Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The first Olympic Games held in Oceania and in the Southern Hemisphere, Melbourne 1956 was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, who arrived at Melbourne Cricket Ground by car. During the opening ceremony, a marching band performed a tricky piece of choreography by forming themselves into the Olympic rings.




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1960 Rome Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The 1960 Rome Summer Games opening ceremony is noted for the reintroduction of the original 1896 Olympic anthem after officials declared that newer versions of the hymn were just not hitting the musical mark. Pictured in straw hats and sunglasses is the US team en route to the opening ceremony.




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1964 Tokyo Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Yoshinori Sakai, a student born in Hiroshima on the day the first atomic bomb devastated the city, carries the torch up the stairs to light the cauldron during the opening ceremony for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.




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1968 Mexico Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The Olympic torch relay made news again four years later when Mexico’s Norma Enriqueta Basilio became the first woman in the history of the modern Olympic Games to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony.




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1972 Munich Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Groups of Munich youngsters greeted athletes as they took part in the Parade of Nations at the 1972 Summer Games opening ceremony, in what was regarded as the beginning of the artistic program. Sadly, Munich will always be remembered for the terrorist attack on the Olympic village.




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1976 Montreal Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Montreal’s opening ceremony was attended by Queen Elizabeth II in her capacity as head of the Commonwealth. She was accompanied by Prince Philip, and her son, Andrew. Her daughter, Princess Anne, was an equestrian competitor for the team from Great Britain. Among the artistic highlights was a troupe of dancers dressed in white who performed a brief dance in the outline of the Olympic rings.




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1980 Moscow Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The 1980 opening ceremony in Moscow heralded the use of the card stunt, whereby performers held up colored plaques in order to make larger designs (pictured). In fact, the Moscow games are regarded as the moment when a new level of artistry was introduced into the opening and closing ceremonies. The occasion is also remembered for the 66 countries that boycotted the games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.




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1984 Los Angeles Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The 1960 Olympic decathlete gold medalist Rafer Johnson of the United States is seen climbing the stairs of the Memorial Coliseum as he prepares to light the Olympic cauldron at LA’s Memorial Coliseum during the opening ceremony. Johnson, who was also a movie actor, was one of three individuals who helped subdue Sirhan Sirhan moments after he had fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.




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1988 Seoul Summer Games Opening Ceremony

One of the central themes at Seoul was the ending of the Cold War and world peace. The event is remembered for an unfortunate incident when a number of doves were caught in flames after the Olympic cauldron had been ignited. It promptly ended the release of live birds at any time during subsequent opening ceremonies. Incidentally, this was the last Olympic opening ceremony to be held during daylight hours.




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1992 Barcelona Summer Games Opening Ceremony

During the opening ceremony in Barcelona, Paralympic archer Antonio Robello lit the Olympic cauldron by shooting a flaming arrow over it, igniting the gases. Later, a recording of ‘Barcelona,’ the late Freddie Mercury’s (1946-1991) duet with Montserrat Caballé—originally scheduled as a live performance—was played over the ceremony, which again was themed on showcasing the host nation’s history and culture.




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1996 Atlanta Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Noted for the Olympic cauldron being lit by former gold medalist and boxing champion Muhammad Ali, Atlanta’s opening ceremony featured typically patriotic cheerleaders and marching bands. A visual treat, however, was the Temple of Zeus segment, where an arc light cast a body shadow or silhouette across performers portraying an athlete or goddess.




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2000 Sydney Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Several aspects of Australian culture, history, and wildlife were presented in spectacular fashion at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games opening ceremony. The hopeful moment of reconciliation towards Aboriginal Australians was particularly poignant, while the bio-luminescent depictions of Australia’s sea life was dazzling.




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2004 Athens Summer Games Opening Ceremony

Athens’ opening ceremony celebrated ancient Greek culture, and began with a 28-second countdown—one second per Olympics held since Athens last hosted the first modern games, in 1896 (recall that the 1906 games hosted in Athens were known as the Intercalated Games).




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2008 Beijing Summer Games Opening Ceremony

The artistic element of the opening ceremony at Beijing comprised two parts titled “Brilliant Civilization” and “Glorious Era” respectively, with one of the highlights being the heart-pounding might of 2,008 glowing drummers.




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2012 London Summer Games Opening Ceremony

“Queen Elizabeth II” famously parachuted out of a helicopter followed by James Bond 007 during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, in what was a brilliant artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation’s culture.




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2016 Rio Summer Games Opening Ceremony





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