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Pago Pago, American Samoa— If you plan to tune in to the Paris Olympics, you’re probably looking forward not only to the sporting extravaganza, but also the cultural extravaganza of the Opening Ceremonies. These spectacular events, which kick off each Olympic Games, are designed to tell a new story about the host city and country, and set a new creative standard for live mega-events.
These rituals incorporate Olympic Charter (IOC rules and principles) Parades of athletes, the raising of the Olympic flag, cultural performances designed by national organizers, etc., all reflect the international Olympic ideals and also Communicate the host country’s identity and culture.
However, it took decades for Olympic opening ceremonies to reach this scale. 1896 First modern Olympic GamesIn Athens, athletes only need to enter the stadium to hear A speech and a specially composed hymn – although More than 50,000 spectators Still participating.
The 1908 London Olympics were the first Purpose-built stadiumand was the first way for athletes to enter the stadium. National team uniformsWith nearly 700 athletes from the UK and Ireland, the Games established Britain’s image as the spiritual home of amateur sport, an image that informed the British Empire’s colonial ideology of a “civilising mission”.
After World War I, the opening ceremony continued to follow the traditional format. The first widely photographednational teams marching in formation, dignitaries giving speeches, and pigeons being released.
One disturbing reality about the idealistic myth of Olympic history is that the first opening ceremony on the scale of today’s was the 1936 Berlin Olympics – “Hitler’s Olympics”The opening ceremony in Berlin adapted the stage propaganda of the Nuremberg Rally into a ceremony designed to make Nazi Germany a world power, even hired the same filmmaker who filmed the rally, Leni Riefenstahl.
Olympic researcher Jules Boykoff called the 1936 Berlin Olympics “Sports whitewashing”countries use international sport to divert attention from human rights violations.
Today, the torch relay and lighting of the Olympic flame are the climax of every opening ceremony, but in 1936 it allowed the Nazis to claim continuity between their Aryan ideals and ancient Greek civilization.
Organizer of the 1948 London Olympics, after World War II, Reinventing the relay tradition As international peace and ancient “Olympic Truce”the warring Greek city-states agreed not to harm enemy athletes during the initial games.
TV broadcast of the event
In 1964, when Tokyo hosted the Olympics for the first time, live television changed the opening ceremony again. Now available to a global audience, the ceremony took on new importance as an opportunity for national storytelling and public diplomacy. For example, the selection of 19-year-old Yoshinori Sakai (born in Hiroshima on the day of the U.S. atomic bomb attack) as Tokyo’s torchbearer Deep national significance And symbolizes A New Peaceful Japan.
Spectators attribute the grandeur of today’s Olympic opening ceremonies to Cold War rivalries and the ideological struggles of the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Games, when each superpower led a boycott of its rival’s Games.
The two superpowers also used opening ceremonies to promote what they saw as superior ideological values. Moscow’s opening ceremony was the largest cultural show of its time, including gymnastics, group dances, and folk dances. Los Angeles used popular music traditions and Hollywood glamour to promote Consumer Culture and the American Dream.
After the Cold War ended, opening ceremonies continued to offer opportunities to change the world’s perception of a host country. For example, the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony sought to express Australia’s multicultural narrative and respect Aboriginal culture, despite Critics say these statements are stereotypes.
Sydney’s torchbearers Aboriginal sprinter Cathy Freemanbecame a national hero after winning the women’s 400m. Many Australians see this as Historical reconciliation Learn about Australia’s colonial history.
Opening ceremonies also often tell a story about the host country’s identity in contrasting ways. In 2008, Beijing’s opening ceremony was a grand occasion that advanced the idea of unification. “Grand Narrative” China is a world-leading country with a long history. The creative team of the London 2012 Olympics contrasted Britain with China, portraying China as a democratic, eccentric country. “Mosaic” Colorful personal life stories.
The 2012 awards ceremony director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce drew inspiration from filmmaker Humphrey Jennings. Co-founded the Mass Observation Social History Project (collecting records of daily life from hundreds of volunteer diarists) and produced the famous film about daily life in Britain during the Second World War.
The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games has since become Nostalgic national memory Many people remember “Happy Belonging”However, even in 2012 it caused controversy, with Conservative MP Aidan Burley describing it as “Left-wing multicultural bullshit”.
Opening ceremonies in recent years have their own political stories. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics inspired the Russian people’s pride in history and culture. Weeks before Russia annexed Crimea. Rio 2016 Olympics opening ceremony highlights Brazil EnvironmentalismThe North and South Korean delegations enter the stadium together at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics As a step towards peace.
Coronavirus Restricted What the opening ceremonies in Tokyo and Beijing in 2021 and 2022 might accomplish, despite Tokyo’s selection of Haitian-American tennis star Naomi Osaka as a torchbearer Rare visibility Racial diversity in Japan.
Olympic opening ceremonies often expose the gap between countries’ self-image and reality. silence Their historical narratives and Security Politics They demanded.
As occasions that generate moments of shared global progress but have their roots in nationalist and colonialist power structures, opening ceremonies reflect the underlying tensions between Olympic nationalism and internationalism. They are also the most visible way in which the Olympics Combining sports and culture.
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics will be the first opening ceremony to be held without pandemic restrictions since 2018. Its unprecedented format, Along a six-kilometer stretch of the Seinealso unprecedentedly Safety Footprint host city. While the ceremony is sure to tell the story of a lifetime about France in 2024, Parisians will have to judge whether it is worth the expense.
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