By now, you’ve fast-forwarded through the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, an amazing $300 million spectacle that featured 15,000 performers, nearly 11,000 athletes from 204 countries, and two slap-happy television commentators (at least in America). Below, three of the best and worst moments you should not have missed.
The Best
1. The sigh of relief one of the 2,008 drummers (pictured, top) let out at the end of their number. You can’t blame him. In addition to the pressure for perfection (which was achieved), they had to remember to smile so they wouldn’t intimidate TV audiences.
2. The big reveal that it was people controlling those bouncing blocks. Unbelievable. It blew my mind when they finally flipped their lids and peeked out. Plus, their waves were adorable.
3. When nine-year-old earthquake survivor Lin Hao, who freed himself from the rubble of his school then returned to rescue two of his classmates, joined China flagbearer Yao Ming. See also: when Yao Ming looked down at Lin Hao and showed him how to wave to the crowd. When Yao Ming was interviewed holding Lin Hao in his arms and Lin Hao answered the reporter’s “Thank you” with “Thank you. Thank you very much.”
Honorable Mentions: That Olympics-themed commercial for The Office’s fall return (“Slap Face” is Jim’s new sport, and Dwight is a natural athlete) and the little smirk President Bush let slip while applauding Iraq’s athletes during the parade of nations (I read it as, I know all 91,000 of you in this stadium are looking at me).
The Worst
1. Team Hungary’s entrance. Though they’d already established that they weren’t the right men to discuss fashion, NBC analysts Matt Lauer and Bob Costas couldn’t help themselves when the Hungarian women (pictured, bottom) entered the Bird’s Nest wearing what has to take the gold medal in Worst National Ensemble. “What do you think of these outfits?” Lauer asked. “Well, it’s all a matter of taste,” Costas answered. “Diplomatic as always,” Lauer noted. Awkward silence. “They appear happy about it all,” Costas said. “Slowly digging yourself out. Hungary, Line 1,” Lauer joked.
2. Lauer imagines what President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are discussing in the stands. “Perhaps talking about that opening drum number still…” I would’ve loved to hear what Matt thought a bored Bush was thinking later in the evening when he was tapping a mini-American flag on his knee.
3. Each time it looked as though the Olympic torch was, gulp, out. Not only did I think the torch had gone out several times during the flame’s final hand-offs, but I also thought it’d gone dark on its flight up to the cauldron with former Chinese Olympian Li Ning. (If you’re wondering why his astounding air-lap around the “membrane” of the Bird’s Nest didn’t make the best-of cut, that’s why. Awe-inspiring doesn’t have to mean stressful. Or does it?)
What were your best and worst moments from the opening ceremony? And what was your favorite bit of trivia from Matt and Bob: That the United Arab Emirates boasts female athletes for the first time, and they just happen to be the daughters of the prime minister? That at the 1936 games, Haiti and Liechtenstein realized they had the same flag? That El Salvador’s flagbearer was chosen through a nationwide text-messaging poll and weightlifter Eva Maria Dimas received 73 percent of the vote?
For more Olympics coverage, check out our daily Olympic Stud of the Day.
You said the Hungarian women were “pictured, bottom” and then forgot to put in the picture – I’d like to see it!
Rebecca, they’re below the picture of the sighing-in-relief drummer, not below the text.
I THINK IT was very well executed and amazing it was people doing all the visuals
i was so impressed with the opening ceremony! especially since there were no repeat performers…the precision, artistry and beautiful costumes were all amazing eye candy.
The whole event was fantastic. Loved the way they lit the torch, the drums, the boxes in the floor when people popped up it blew me away.
Hungarian women’s outfits…oh dear.
I noticed they didn’t do the Olympic oath, or did they and I just missed it?
Saw Pres. Bush look at his watch one time.
I thought the two countries that had the flag were Liechtenstein and Paraguay. Makes more sense. Spain’s a big enough country and it’s flag would have been obivious to another European nation.
I liked that many of the west and central African nations really stood out, even if some of their outfits weren’t the best. Way to inject a little more culture into the pageant.
Beautiful. Congratuation….China is a great and progressive country. Thank you.
An Athletic and an official did take the oath. I watched other countrie’s coverage online. NBC cut out alot of things.
France and the US outfits were amazingly cute. I loved looking at the hot athletes
. And most of all, everything China did for the opening ceremony just blew me away. Everything was perfect, precise, creative, jaw-dropping. I watched it a second time today on the Korean channel, much better to watch with no commercials and with the titles of each segment shown. I’m sorry I missed the Yao Ming moment!
Some More Best
-When the drummers did the countdown with the numbers (first mind blowing moment for me)
-the costumes esp. the offwhite/gray “dresses” everyone had on during the Confucius bamboo scroll part
-I thought the idea of all the athletes walking in the paint and then on the canvas was cool
-the sparkly rings that were made of of light (it seemed) but then got lifted up
I thought Bob & Matt were a good match. The random trivia I liked was how the president of the one country had personally approved the outfits (which they equated to Bush & Ralph Lauren looking at swatches together)
Overall very beautiful and well done. But the best and worst was the commentators stating that the Central African Republic was “a republic, located somewhere in central Africa.” Ya think?
The drum countdown and the waves of blocks were stunning in their precision and unbelievable to watch.
And that little boy was adorable…when they told his story, I cried like a baby. Such an amazing moment and Yao was so sweet to him.
Martin, turns out we were both wrong: It was Haiti. Fixed it. Thanks.
I have never until this moment agreed with EVERY point of a countdown list. While sadly stoic in real life, I spend the two weeks of each Olympics blubbering like a baby at every triumph (regardless of the nation represented). I am still dehydrated from last night. It’s so easy to think of those amazing performers as robots until you see that little sigh, or the sly laugh at having pulled on over on millions (see post-box reveal), etc. And that little boy! he killed me! And yes, I suffered about a ten-minute fit of apoplexy until the freaking Olympic cauldron was finally lit. Sheesh! I think i had a mini-nightmare about it when I finally fell asleep.
I loved the torch-lighting; I never could have done it, but it was incredible to watch. I also loved the guys in illuminated outfits, and thought the people in the boxes were amazing–my husband had just been musing about how they controlled them, and then the tops opened. (BTW, Mandi, it’s “peeked.”) 15,000 performers is a mind-blowing number.
The Hungarian women’s outfits were definitely the worst. Close-ups revealed the red splashes to be flowers, but from a distance they looked as though they’d been bled on. Some of the dumb comments were the worst, too, like when Costas claimed, as the athletes from Malawi were shown, that pop culture and the Olympics met because Madonna adopted a child from the country. No, Bob, not really. Or Lauer’s claim that this year’s games are the only time that you could say that China invented paper and printing. Had he said “the host country” he would have been correct, but it still would be a dumb comment.
Oops. Haha. I’m blind.