Opening Ceremony
kicks off Games

Athens’ bumpy ride
to Olympics ends
with lavish welcome

Slide show

Denmark's Olympic champion women's handball team celebrate gold at Athens 2004 Olympic Games

Visions of gold: Aug. 29
Demark throws for handball gold, Argentina takes it to the net and Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis jumps for joy.

updated 1:14 a.m. ET Aug. 14, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - With a roaring flame that soared into the sky Saturday, thousands of athletes celebrated the Olympics’ return to their ancient homeland in a joyful ceremony set among the fears of the modern world.

A sea of athletes under 202 flags parted to let a Greek windsurfing champion jog across the stadium and climb to the Olympic cauldron, which dipped on its slender 102-foot arm to receive the spark from his torch.

“Olympic Games, welcome home!” cried Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee. The thousands of athletes ringing him watched as their national flags were carried away, replaced by an Olympic banner that rose opposite the cauldron.

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“Athletes of 202 countries, show us that sport unites by overriding national, political, religious and language barriers,” Rogge said.

But the surveillance blimp overhead, part of a $1.5 billion security operation, highlighted fears that the first Summer Olympics since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could fall victim to just such divisions.

The ceremony closed an important circle in sports, with the modern Olympics returning to the city where they were born in an all-marble arena in 1896.

“For the second time in 108 years, Greece stands before you as host country of the greatest celebration of humanity,” said the games’ chief organizer, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. “We have waited long for this moment.”

The ceremony began with the Olympic rings bursting into flame from the waters of the flooded stadium infield. What followed was a pageant celebrating Greek history, culture and civilization.

A boy sailed across the water, and a centaur — the mythological half-man, half-horse — waded through it to toss a spear of light. The ancient god of love, Eros, flew above two lovers dancing in the sea, then hovered over a procession of figures from Greek history.

The theme of rebirth was never far from the pageant, which began with the goddess of fertility and ended with a pregnant woman whose belly began to glow as lights rippled through the water and then the crowd.

“The great moment has come!” cried the announcer, and Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas led thousands of athletes into the stadium in a procession that lasted nearly two hours. Dutch disc jockey Tiesto provided a nonstop dance mix, a departure from the more formal music of past ceremonies.

There was huge applause for Afghanistan, which returned to the Olympics after an eight-year absence, and for the Palestinians, who are competing under their own flag but not as a sovereign nation.

The more than 500-member U.S. team — led by basketball guard Dawn Staley — waved to the audience but, as instructed, didn’t overdo their enthusiasm in a ceremony televised across a planet increasingly hostile to U.S. interests.

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There were cheers for the Americans, but some gave the delegation the thumbs-down in an apparent show of displeasure for the war in Iraq. Moments later, the Iraqis entered to a roaring ovation.

Men from Burundi danced with spears and women from Moldova paraded in hot pink pantsuits. A lone tennis player walked with the flag of Djibouti.

Four-foot-eleven marathon runner Agueda Amaral carried East Timor’s flag into its first opening ceremony, and sprinters Kaitinano Mwemweata and Karianako Nariki wore woven grass costumes to celebrate Kiribati’s first Olympics.

The biggest cheer came for the final delegation — Greece, whose 440 athletes rounded the track in single file.

Tiesto cranked up his music, the crowd took to its feet, and the party was on.

But there were somber moments as well. A runner breaking ribbons to symbolize each of the cities of the modern Olympics fell and paused to mark the break in the Olympics during World Wars I and II.

But he resumed his journey to a model of an olive tree, where the Greek president proclaimed the Olympic Games open.

For Greece, which suffered doubts about its ability to get the games organized and security in place in time, the moment represented a triumph. A group of flag-waving Greeks in the stands put it best.

“We did it! We did it!” they chanted.

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