HIGH ENERGY GALA AT OPENING OF RIO GAMES
WITH fireworks forming the word “Rio” in the sky and supermodel Gisele Bundchen shimmering to the tune of The Girl From Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro jubilantly welcomed the world to the first South American Olympic Games.
After a rough ride from vote to games, the city of beaches, carnival, grinding poverty and sun-kissed wealth opened the 31st Olympiad with a high-energy gala celebration of Brazil’s can-do spirit, biodiversity and melting pot history.
The low-tech, cut-price opening ceremony, a moment of levity for a nation beset by economic and political woes, featured performers as slaves and gravity-defying climbers hanging
from ‘buildings’ in Brazil’s teeming megacities.
And – of course – there were dancers, all hips and wobble, grooving to thumping funk and sultry samba.
But Brazil also packaged its party with solemnity, lacing the fun and frivolous show with sobering messages about global warming and conservation.
Images of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, swirling in the Earth’s atmosphere were followed by projections of world cities and regions – Amsterdam, Florida, Shanghai, Dubai – being swamped by rising seas.
The peace symbol, tweaked into the shape of a tree, was projected onto the floor of the Maracana Stadium that filled with thousands of athletes from the 207 teams.
“The heat is melting the icecap,” a voice intoned. “It’s disappearing very quickly.”
The crowd roared when Bundchen sashayed from one side of the 78,000seat arena to the other, as Tom Jobim’s grandson, Daniel, played his grandfather’s famous song about the Ipanema girl “tall and tan and young and lovely”.
In a video preceding the show, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the games “celebrate the best of humanity” and appealed for an Olympic truce, calling on “all warring parties to lay down their weapons” during the two weeks of sporting achievement.
There were times, after the International Olympic Committee selected Rio ahead of Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid in 2009, when it seemed that the city of 6.5 million people might not get its act together for the world’s greatest sporting mega-event.
The spreading health crisis of the mosquito-born Zika virus kept some athletes away. Promises to clean up Rio’s filthy waters remained unfulfilled.
The heavy bill for the games, at least £9.1 billion, made them unpopular with many. Heavily armed security stopped a small group of protesters from getting close to the stadium ahead of the ceremony.
“Our admiration is even greater because you managed this at a very difficult time in Brazilian history. We have always believed in you,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
The honour of officially declaring the games open fell to Michel Temer, Brazil’s unpopular interim president, who was loudly jeered.
He was standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff. She was ousted less than four months before the games for alleged budget violations.
It was one of many problems in the run-up to the event, and hit the opening ceremony. Fewer than 25 foreign heads of state were listed as attending, with others seemingly staying away to avoid giving the impression of taking sides amid Brazil’s leadership uncertainty.
The cannonball-shaped cauldron was lit by Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. At the 2004 games, an Irish spectator wearing a kilt, knee-socks and a beret tackled de Lima while he was leading the Olympic marathon. Instead of gold, he fell back to take bronze.
Greece, the historical and spiritual home of the games, led the march of athletes into the stadium.
They were joined by a first Refugee Olympic Team of 10 athletes, displaced from Syria, South Sudan, Congo and Ethiopia. Their flag bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya. Only Brazil’s team, which marched last, drew a louder roar from the crowd than the refugees.
The athletes were given tree seeds, plus cartridges of soil. When they sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.
On behalf of all 11,288 competitors (6,182 men; 5,106 women), Brazilian two-time Olympic champion sailor Robert Scheidt pledged they will not take banned drugs .
The oath is likely to ring false to fans after the scandal of government-orchestrated cheating in Russia. As a consequence, Russia’s team was whittled down from a hoped-for 389 athletes to around 270.
Iran picked a woman, archer Zahra Nemati, as flag bearer for its team made up overwhelmingly of men. Another woman pushed Nemati’s wheelchair. She was paralysed in a car accident as a teenager.
Shoals of samba dancers flowed in a rainbow of colours, but many showed less flesh than normal for Brazil, seemingly mindful of their global TV audience.
After the grandeur of Beijing’s opening ceremony in 2008 and the hightech, cheeky inventiveness of London’s in 2012, Rio’s was earthier and less swish but more sobering, with its gloomy environmental look at the future and deliberate penny-pinching.
Creative director Fernando Meirelles said their budget, slashed by half as Brazil’s economic recession bit ever harder, was 12 times less than London and 20 times less than Beijing.
“It is pretty tacky to be overspending,” he said. “It is not a good message for the world. When 40% of the homes in Brazil have no sanitation, you can’t really be spending a billion ) for a show.
“In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasn’t got.”
FROM rowing to rugby, Welsh athletes are getting ready for their ultimate test, as the Olympics get under way in Rio de Janeiro. And, as sports fans back home get ready to cheer on the Welsh men and women – as well as the rest of Team GB – competing, this is your guide on when to watch them. Geraint Thomas, pictured below, was the first Welsh competitor at Rio when he took part in the road race yesterday afternoon – crashing out late on when he looked on course to challenge for a podium place. The Cardiff cyclist may have a second crack at a medal, though, if he takes part in Wednesday’s time trial. The Games are being broadcast on the BBC, but with Rio four hours behind the UK you may have to factor in some late nights over the coming weeks. There are 23 Welsh athletes competing, with a 24th – rower Graeme Thomas – being forced to pull out earlier this week with illness. It is the biggestever Welsh contingent at an overseas Olympics. HERE’S WHO TO WATCH.
ATHLETICS
SEREN BUNDYDAVIES The only Welsh athlete on show at the Olympics, which is the first time since the 1952 Games in Helsinki that just one track and field star went to an Olympics. The relay presents the more realistic chance of a podium position for the 21-year-old. Women’s 400m Heats: 3pm, Saturday, August 13 Semi-finals: 12.35am, Monday, August 15 Final: 2.45am, Tuesday, August 16 Women’s 4x400m relay Heats: 12.40am, Saturday, August 20 Final: 2am, Sunday, August 21
BOXING
JOE CORDINA The Cardiff lightweight boxer began his quest to become just the third Welsh boxer to win an Olympic medal late last night when he took on Charly Suarez of the Philippines. A win would see him into Tuesday’s round-of-16. Men’s lightweight – 60kg Round-of-16: from 3pm, Tuesday, August 9 Quarter-finals: from 4.30pm, Friday, August 12 Semi-finals: from 4.30pm, Sunday, August 14 Final: 11.15pm, Tuesday, August 16
CYCLING
ELINOR BARKER AND CIARA HORNE Barker and Horne are two of a five-member squad, with only four lining up at the start in the Velodrome. Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand and Katie Archibald complete the quintet. Women’s team pursuit Qualifications: from 8.19pm, Thursday, August 11 Heats: from 3.17pm, Saturday, August 13 Final: 9.14pm, Saturday, August 13 BECKY JAMES The Abergavenny sprint star and 2013 double world champion is competing in her first Olympics. Women’s sprint Qualifications: 8pm, Sunday, August 14 Round-of-32: from 9.12pm, Sunday, August 14 Round-of-16: from 2pm, Monday, August 15 Quarter-finals: from 2pm, Tuesday, August 16 Semi-finals: from 8pm, Tuesday, August 16 Final: 9.44pm, Tuesday, August 16 Women’s keirin Round one: from 2pm, Saturday, August 13 Round two: from 8.22pm, Saturday, August 13 Final: 9.33pm, Saturday, August 13 OWAIN DOULL The Cardiff cyclist is the fresh-faced youngster in the GB men’s pursuit team, which also includes Sir Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke, with Mark Cavendish providing the back-up. Men’s team pursuit Qualifications: from 9.23pm, Thursday, August 11 Heats: from 8.52pm, Friday, August 12 Final: 10.42pm, Friday, August 12
JUDO
NATALIE POWELL The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist was selected ahead of London 2012 silver medallist Gemma Gibbons in the -78kg section and has podium hopes. Women’s -78kg Round-of-16: 3.17pm, Thursday, August 11 (vs Sarah Myriam Mazouz, Gabon) Quarter-finals: from 4.06pm, Thursday, August 11 Semi-finals: from 7.58pm, Thursday, August 11 Final: 8.40pm, Thursday, August 11 CHRIS BARTLEY The North Walian will compete at his second Olympic Games in 2016, having won a silver medal at his first. Men’s coxless lightweight four Semi-finals: from 2.50pm, Tuesday, August 9 Final: 2.44pm, Thursday, August 11 VICTORIA THORNLEY The North Walian finally was selected in the women’s double scull with London 2012 gold medallist Katherine Grainger. Women’s double sculls Semi-finals: from 2.10pm, Tuesday, August 9 Final: 2.04pm, Thursday, August 11
RUGBY SEVENS
JAMES DAVIES AND SAM CROSS Uncapped Scarlets flanker Davies and Cross, from Brynmawr, are the two Welsh players selected in Team GB for rugby’s Olympic return. Men’s rugby sevens Group stages: Great Britain v Kenya, 4pm, Tuesday, August 9 Great Britain v Japan, 9pm, Tuesday, August 9 Great Britain v New Zealand, 4.30pm, Wednesday, August 10 Quarter-finals: from 9pm, Wednesday, August 10 Semi-finals: from 6.30pm,
Thursday, August 11 Final: 11pm, Thursday, August 11 JASMINE JOYCE The 20-yearold is the only Welsh member of the 12-strong women’s squad, although ex-Ospreys flanker and Wales sevens star Richie Pugh is the assistant coach. Women’s rugby sevens Group stages: Great Britain v Brazil, 4pm, Saturday, August 6 Great Britain v Japan, 9pm, Saturday, August 6 Great Britain v Canada, 4.30pm, Sunday, August 7 Quarter-finals: from 9pm, Sunday, August 7 Semi-finals: from 6.30pm, Monday, August 8 Final: 11pm, Monday, August 8
SAILING
HANNAH MILLS The Dinas Powys sailing star agonisingly missed out on gold during the London 2012 medal race, with Mills and partner Saskia Clark settling for silver. Women’s 470 (dinghy) Preliminaries: between 5.15pm, Wednesday, August 10, and 6.40pm, Monday, August 15 Medal race: 5.05pm, Wednesday, August 17 CHRIS GRUBE The Bala sailor is competing in his first Olympic Games. Men’s 470 (dinghy) Preliminaries: between 5.05pm, Wednesday, August 10, and 6.30pm, Monday, August 15 Medal race: 6.05pm, Wednesday, August 17
SHOOTING
ELENA ALLEN The 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist also competed at Beijing in 2008 and London 2012. Women’s skeet Qualification: 1pm, Friday, August 12 Semi-final: 7pm, Friday, August 12 Final: 7.45pm, Friday, August 12
SWIMMING
JAZZ CARLIN It was heartbreak for Carlin four years ago in London after missing out on a home Games, but she has since won Commonwealth and European gold and world bronze. Women’s 400m freestyle Heat: 6.45pm, Sunday, August 7 Final: 3.01am, Monday, August 8 Women’s 800m freestyle Heat: 6.02pm, Thursday, August 11 Final: 2.20am, Saturday, August 13 GEORGIA DAVIES A second Games for the Swansea swimmer who will hope to improve on her semi-final at London 2012. Women’s 100m backstroke Heat: 5.11pm, Sunday, August 7 Semi-finals: from 3.36am, Monday, August 8 Final: 2.30am, Tuesday, August 9 CHLOE TUTTON The Rhonddaborn rising star, 20, was something of a surprise selection in the Team GB swimming squad, but has set a new British record in the 200m breaststroke. Women’s 100m breaststroke Heat: 6.11pm, Sunday, August 7 Semi-finals: from 2.29am, Monday, August 8 Final: 2.54am, Tuesday, August 9 Women’s 200m breaststroke Heat: 6.02pm, Wednesday, August 10 Semi-finals: from 3.11am, Thursday, August 11 Final: 2.17am, Friday, August 12 IEUAN LLOYD The Penarth ace was just a teenager when he represented Team GB at London 2012. Men’s 200m individual medley Heat: 6.24pm, Wednesday, August 10 Semi-finals: from 3.29am, Thursday, August 11 Final: 3.01am, Friday, August 12
TAEKWONDO
JADE JONES, left Wales’ only individual gold medallist from London 2012 provided one of the defining moments of four years ago when, as a teenager, she claimed -57kg gold. Women’s - 57kg Round-of-16: from 1pm, Thursday, August 18 Quarter-finals: from 7pm, Thursday, August 18 Semi-finals: from 9pm, Thursday, August 18 Final: 2am, Friday, August 19
TRIATHLON
NON STANFORD AND HELEN JENKINS Jenkins was world champion in 2008 and 2011, with Stanford repeating that feat in 2013. Women’s triathlon 3pm, Saturday, August 20