An Emotional Romp

I have always enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Olympics; to be honest I love the self congratulatory, preening the host country always indulges in, in an effort to show themselves in the biggest and best light. It is always a showy, spectacular emotionally charged romp, and every year I always seem to have a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye.
In recent years I have two favourites game openings: Barcelona in 1992- with an opening breathtaking in a classy, arty and totally up market way (I loved the archer firing a flaming arrow to ignite the Olympic torch almost as much as Montserrat Caballé banging out "Barcelona" with the tiny Freddie Mercury hading behind her fifty foot dress)
My other favourite games had to be the 2000 romp fest that was Sydney. Two hundred drag queens dancing in front of Kylie (who was singing on top of a sixty foot flip flop) lent a certain warmness and self depreciating humour to the whole affair, which I always think was a kind of a first for the games.

You would have thought that the US with all its money and showmanship, would have produced some fantastic set pieces, but Atlanta and Lost Angeles, for me were the most disappointing games for all their excesses. China's opening today, was on the other hand, quite stunning; In fact the whole thing ticked most of my Olympic boxes. It was beautiful to look at, innovative ( The flame bearer "running" in mid air around the Bird's Nest stadium roof was a touch of genius) and not too cheesy.Oh yes we did have little snippets of pure emotion.......the 6 year old school boy hero of the recent earthquake walking hand in hand with the Chinese flag bearer left not a dry eye in the house, but generally the whole thing was wonderfully over-the-top. Best bit of the games for me.