Opening ceremony - ritual then, fantasy now

The opening ceremony for the Olympic Games today is a consciously crafted programme to transport viewers into a world of fantasy. How this primary agenda has progressively acquired the label of an extravanganza from a simple ritual in 1896 is traced by S. THYAGARAJAN.

WHEN BARON Pierre de Coubertin sanctified sport as the instrument to give youth an avenue to experience the essence of peace out of physical activity his intention was never to glamorise the concept of Olympism. He crafted only rituals to lift the whole aspect of sport into a plane of deification. So much so, the opening ceremonies, very much part and parcel of the modern Olympic Games, were restricted for a long time to solemn music of the hymn, composed by Costis Palamas and set to tune by Sypros Samaras.

Over 60,000 people witnessed the opening ceremony of the inaugural Games in 1896 at Athens headed by King George I and his son, Prince Constantine, as President of the Organising Committee. The euphoria generated died down quickly as the next two editions at Paris and St.Louis were clubbed with trade fairs. Some competitors were unaware that they were competing in the Olympic Games. The controversy generated over the U.S. contingent's refusal to lower the Stars and Stripes in 1908 before the Royal box in London injected a discordant note on the opening day. The practice of nominating a placard bearer for each contingent came into vogue from the 1912 edition at Stockholm.

Concerned at the lack of colour to enhance the atmosphere of festivity to set the tone and tenor of the Games, the Olympic flag, designed by the Baron in 1914 in Paris to mark the 20th anniversary of the rebirth of the Olympics, was hoisted in 1920 at Antwerp. The Belgian Olympic Committee presented to the IOC the embroidered satin pennant that went up the flag post before King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. The worn out piece however was replaced at the 1988 Olympiad in Seoul. Another notable addition in Antwerp was oath taking. The maiden honour went to Belgian fencer, Victor Boin.

The Twenties saw Olympics acquiring enormous importance and focus. Encouraged by the response, the IOC introduced the Winter Games, the first of which came off in 1924 at Chemonix. Progessively, the number of countries in the fray enlarged. Paris in 1924 featured as many as 44 in the march past. Poor health prevented the Baron from attending the 1928 Games in Amsterdam which established the system of lighting the flame to burn for the duration of the Olympics and the release of the pigeons as a gesture of promoting peace and goodwill.

Every edition subsequently added an item or two to the opening ceremony. From being a carnival, the Olympics began to be referred to as an extravaganza. The torch relay, on the suggestion of Carl Diem of German Olympic Committee, became part of the ritual. On July 20, 1936, 14 Greek maidens gathered at the temple of Zeus at Olympia. With the help of lenses, they lit the sacred flame from the rays of the sun. Over 30,000 runners relayed the torch from Greece to Berlin Stadium. The Olympic flame was then lit by Fritz Schilgen to the accompaniment of the vociferous cheers of the crowd headed by Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. Berlin also paved the way for telecast of the events.

As the Olympic Movement gathered momentum, more and more attention came to accentuating the mystique of opening ceremonies. Understandably, the target was television audience. The war ravaged Britain celebrated the first post-war edition in 1948 in London with austerity. At Helsinki in 1952, the opening was marred by the running across the track by a peace activist, Barbara Rotraut-Pleyer. Some historians record she was mentally deranged. However, the incident was quickly pushed to the background when the stalwart Pavvo Nurmi entered the stadium with the torch and handed it over to the equally illustrious Hannes Kolehmainen. This was the start of introducing the living legends to come to stage to light the Olympic flame. The wonder miler, Ron Clarke, ignited it at Melbourne in 1956 while another extraordinary athlete, John Landy, read the oath.

When the Games moved to the Orient for the first time, to Tokyo in 1964, the Japanese, past-masters in the art of innovations, designed the flag pole to measure the same distance (15.12m) as Mikio Oda jumped in 1928 at Amsterdam. But the opening ceremony was converted into an emotional experience when Yoshiouri Sakai, who was born on the day when Hiroshima was subjected to nuclear attack, lit the sacred flame. The gesture was poignant reminder to the horrors of nuclear war.

While student protest almost crippled the Games in Mexico, they went into history as the first for a woman getting the honour of lighting the flame. It went to the 20-year old, Basilio Sotelo, while the next Olympics in Munich witnessed the first female, a hurdler, Heidi Schuller, taking the oath. An innovation at Munich was using a famous athlete from each continent to carry the Olympic flag. Jim Ryun of United States, Derek Clayton of Australia, Kipochege Keino of Kenya, and Kenji Kimihara of Japan were chosen for this distinction. At Montreal, four years later, two athletes Sephane Prefontaine and Sandra Henderson performed the part of lighting the flame as Canada projected to the world the equality in status for French and English languages.

Not until the Moscow Games in 1980 did the opening ceremonies acquire that touch of gigantism, meticulous crafting of colours, costumes and casting for effecting an enchanting panorama. Despite the boycott, or because of it, the Russians painstakingly raised the contents of the opening ceremony into a plane of aesthetic delight. The U.S. historian, Bill Mallon, writes, `` the ceremonies were elegant, perhaps the most elaborately and best organised ever staged. One beautiful touch was when a chariot circled the Olympic track carrying women dressed in the garb of Greek maidens,'' even as President, Leonid Brezhnev, declared the Games open after that wonderful gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov, took the oath.

After Moscow, the opening ceremonies became the sine qua non of the Games. The cost touched millions, but the host cities were unfazed as long as they made the impact. At Los Angeles, the ceremony was the epitome of an extravaganza in Hollywood style, conceived and crafted by the award winning documentary producer, David Wolper. If Moscow set the parameters to showcase an opening ceremony, Los Angles in 1984 gave the script for creating a world of dream. With a starcast of 9000 drawn from Hollywood, the Americans enthralled the audience with a brand of music, dance and a cultural show that underlined the fabric of American society and Yankee ingenuity. An estimated two and half billion people witnessed the ceremony. Even the lighting of the flame was dramatic, when the outstanding decathlete of the decade, Rafer Johnson, was lifted on an elevator to the top of the Coliseum. Heightening the excitement was the oath taking of Edwin Moses.

The first boycott free Olympiad in Seoul had 160 countries in the march past. The novelty was having three Koreans, each representing a teacher, an academic and a high school student, to light the flame. The touching moment was the entry into the stadium by the 76-year old Kee-Chung Sohn, who won the marathon gold in 1936 at Berlin. As an event projecting the cultural ethos of a country, rich in the tradition of music and dance, Barcelona '92 won high praise. From Placidio Domingo down to Christina Hayos, reckoned as the world's top rated tap dancer, who came on a horse- back singing into the field, the best of the artists of the nation were roped in to make the ceremony a real Spanish delight. The breath-taking moment - perhaps unparalleled in the history of Olympics came when Antonio Rebollo shot a flaming arrow into the brazier to bring to life the sacred flame. The Centennial Games at Atlanta also provided a spectacular ceremony tinged by an emotional moment when the greatest boxer of the decade, Muhammad Ali, emerged on the scene near the couldron and stunned the audience. Hands shaking from the huge frame after an attack of Parkinsons disease, the icon of modern sport lit the flame amidst vociferous approbation. There was hardly a dry eye in the Centennial Stadium. And what a spectacle it was to the 3.5 billion viewers across the globe!

The important aspect of an opening ceremony is not merely designing consciously a huge agenda but piecing the inputs for creating a stunning impact. What Sydney is to offer remains a guess. And the element of suspense is what makes the wait more fascinating.

S.THYAGARAJAN

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