Okay, I just watched them from the beginning right up to the point where the Greek athletes marched out. To be honest, it was rather moving for me. It's hard to believe that little old Greece was able to put on such a massive show for the whole world (and I agree with you Cyberus, Greece seems to be defying all the doubters this year). The little history lesson was very cool I thought. I especially liked how the Olympic rings were lit in the pool of water and the DNA hologram near the end. It's easy to see that no amount of cameras could do it justice, we could only get a hint of what happened.
The parade of nations was cool too. For me it was nice to see the Afghan athletes. I noticed the women were wearing some rather fancy clothing for once. I hope they bring back a medal - they could use the inspiration. I also noticed that Iran had only one female athlete - wonder how she sneaked into the line up??? ;-) I was surprised to see the rather unique flags the French athletes were waving (the French flag on one side, the Greek on the other). It was a wonderful show of support for a host nation - it didn't go unnoticed. Speaking of flags, I was surprised to see that not a single American athlete waved any flag at all. Now, I heard that before the games American organizers instructed their athletes to not over do the flag waving, but I think that's rather silly. If there was ever a time and a place to wave your flag this was the place to do it. It's a shame really, I felt sorry for the athletes who were obviously restrained. They did however get a good response from the fans, so that's good. So did the Canadians actually, which was also nice to see. I was surprised to see so many Canadian flags in the stands. With any luck we'll win some medals too! :-) As for the Greek team, well, I hope any more surprises from their athletes will be positive ones (thanks Kenteris for tainting an otherwise perfect opening). Now I have to watch the rest on tape sometime tomorrow.
Oh, and almost forgot... How about that Iraqi soccer team??? :-P
- Mike