Date: 7-23 February
The 22nd Winter Olympics opened with a spectacular ceremony in the Russian resort city of Sochi.
Athletes from 87 nations paraded before 40,000 people
in the Fisht Stadium before president Vladimir Putin declared the Games
open.
The Olympic flame was lit by Russian former triple gold
medallists Vladislav Tretiak and Irina Rodnina as fireworks illuminated
the night sky.
At a cost of £30bn, the Sochi Games is the most expensive Olympics in history.
by security fears, allegations of corruption,
complaints from unpaid construction workers and concern about the rights
of sexual minorities in Russia.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach
used his welcome speech at the ceremony to promote Olympic values of
diversity and non-discrimination.
"The Olympics are about building bridges to bring
people together," Bach said. "They are not about erecting walls to keep
people apart. Embrace human diversity and unity."
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister
David Cameron stayed away from the ceremony, which was attended by 44
heads of state.
Putin, the driving force behind the Games, avoided making a political statement as he stuck to protocol.
Spectators inside the stadium and television viewers worldwide
were treated to a glittering show lasting nearly three hours and
featuring 22 tonnes of fireworks.
There was a minor glitch early on when one of five
giant snowflakes failed to open up to form an Olympic ring, leaving the
Games' symbol incomplete.
However, the ceremony director Konstantin Ernst played
down the incident, saying: "Zen buddhists have a saying that if you have
the perfectly polished ball, leave a nick in it so you can understand
just how perfectly it is polished.
"No normal person would get distracted by one snowflake
that did not open from the story that is being told over two and-a-half
hours."
In a grand finale, tennis star Maria Sharapova, who
grew up in Sochi, carried the Olympic flame into the stadium before it
passed through the hands of pole vault world record holder Yelena
Isinbayeva, wrestler Aleksandr Karelin and gymnast Alina Kabaeva,
It was carried out of the arena by former figure skater
Rodnina and ice hockey player Tretiak, who lit the cauldron in the
middle of the Olympic park while Stravinksy's "Firebird Suite" filled
the stadium.
The German team caught the eye with their rainbow-coloured uniforms
n a break from Olympic tradition, the teams had earlier entered in
the order of the Russian alphabet, with the host nation coming in last
to deafening cheers.
Athletes from the competing nations appeared to emerge from their country's map courtesy of a dazzling light show.
Speed skater Jon Eley, a 29-year-old competing in his
third Winter Olympics, carried the flag for the 56-strong British team,
who have been set a target of three to seven medals by UK Sport.
Were Britain to win four medals it would equal
Britain's biggest ever medal haul, at the inaugural Winter Olympics in
Chamonix in 1924.
While some nations - including Nepal, Mexico and Pakistan - are
sending only one competitor, the United States team of 230 athletes is
the largest in the history of the Winter Games.
The US have never appeared at an Olympics on Russian soil having boycotted the Moscow summer Games in 1980.
The ceremony featured a colourful journey through
Russian history, celebrating the country's rich heritage in art, music
and ballet, with 3,000 performers and 2,000 volunteers taking part.
In a moving sequence the lights were lowered as
performers, dressed in white to symbolise peace, danced to the strains
of Tchaikovsky.
Hosting an Olympics for the first time since 1980,
Russian athletes are under pressure to improve on the embarrassment of
11th place at the last Winter Games in Vancouver.
The nation has devoted £600m to elite winter sport since winning the bid to host these Games seven years ago.
The first medals of the Games will be decided on
Saturday with five golds up for grabs in biathlon, cross country skiing,
freestyle skiing, snowboarding and speed skating.
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