2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony
Encyclopedia
The Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...

was held on February 12, 2010 beginning at 6:00 pm PST
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...

 (02:00 UTC, February 13) at BC Place Stadium
BC Place Stadium
BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium located at the north side of False Creek, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the home field for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer . Originally opened on June 19, 1983 as the...

 in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. This was the first Olympic opening ceremony
Olympic Games ceremony
Olympic Games ceremonies were an integral part of the Ancient Olympic Games. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies harken back to the Ancient Games from which the Modern Olympics draw their ancestry. An example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies...

 to be held indoors. It was directed by David Atkins
David Atkins
David Atkins, OAM was recognised in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the entertainment industry and is Australia’s most awarded producer, choreographer and director, and CEO of David Atkins Enterprises, a major-events production...

.

The event was officially opened by Governor General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

 Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation, from 2005 to 2010....

, representative of Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, Queen of Canada. The opening ceremony was dedicated by the Vancouver Organizing Committee
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was the non-profit organization responsible for planning, organizing, financing and staging the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics...

 (VANOC) to Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar David Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony...

, a Georgian luge
Luge
A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms for singles and 25-30 kilograms for doubles. Luge...

r who died earlier in the day in a training run. An audience of 61,600 were in attendance at the venue. There were an estimated 4,500 performers.

Production

The production's director was David Atkins
David Atkins
David Atkins, OAM was recognised in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the entertainment industry and is Australia’s most awarded producer, choreographer and director, and CEO of David Atkins Enterprises, a major-events production...

, who directed the Sydney 2000 Olympic
2000 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony
The Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics was described by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch as the most beautiful ceremony the world has ever seen. Held on the evening of Friday 15 September 2000, the Opening Ceremony represented everything Australian, from sea creatures and flora/fauna...

 and 2006 Doha Asian Games
2006 Asian Games
The 15th Asian Games, officially known as the XV Asiad, is Asia's Olympic-style sporting event that was held in Doha, Qatar from December 1 to December 15, 2006. Doha was the first city in its region and only the second in West Asia to host the games...

 ceremonies. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies had a combined budget of $48.5 million (it received $20 million funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage
Department of Canadian Heritage
The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage |department]] of the Government of Canada with responsibility for policies and programs regarding the arts, culture, media, communications networks, official languages , status of women, sports , and multiculturalism...

 while VANOC contributed the rest). Much of the instrumental music for the ceremony was written by Dave Pierce
Dave Pierce
Dave Pierce is a Canadian Emmy-winning songwriter, composer, producer, arranger, orchestrator...

, Gavin Greenaway
Gavin Greenaway
Gavin Greenaway is a music composer and conductor. He is the son of Roger Greenaway.Educated at Strode's College and Trinity College of Music. He started working with his father before leaving school...

, and Donovan Seidle.

The music during the ceremony came from the live on-stage orchestra, conducted by Pierce.

On December 15, 2010, John Furlong, the CEO of VANOC revealed that Celine Dion had been contracted to sing the national anthem at the Opening Ceremony. However, when she became pregnant she cancelled the performance and was subsequently replaced by 16-year old Nikki Yanofsky. In addition, Furlong also revealed that "a famous Quebec composer" was contracted to provide musical elements to the show. That composer, whom he would not name, backed out of arrangement months before the Games over what he termed "philosophical differences." As a result, the artist refused to allow VANOC access to his music's rights and the organizing committee had to unwind part of the ceremony. There is speculation within the media that the Opening Ceremony's cultural show finale titled "We Are More," featuring slam poetry by Shane Koyczan, served as a last minute replacement for the canceled segment featuring the Quebec composer's music. VANOC had also requested the Cirque du Soleil to perform several aerial stunts, however it opted not to as it was already stretched with many U.S. productions.

Dedication

At 5:59 (PST), a PA system
Public address
A public address system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a sound source, e.g., a person giving a speech, a DJ playing prerecorded music, and distributing the sound throughout a venue or building.Simple PA systems are often used in...

 announced that the opening ceremony would be dedicated in the memory of the Georgian
Georgia at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Georgia participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with a team of 8 athletes. On the day of the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in an accident while practicing during for games.- Alpine skiing:...

 luge
Luge
A Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms for singles and 25-30 kilograms for doubles. Luge...

r Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar David Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony...

, who had died in a training accident earlier that day.

For people in the United States, this would be the second straight Olympics opening ceremony (Summer or Winter) dedicated to someone's memory, as the American broadcast of the previous Olympics, in Beijing in 2008
2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time on August 8, 2008, as 8 is considered to be a lucky number. The number 8 is associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture...

, was dedicated to the memory of longtime Olympics broadcaster Jim McKay
Jim McKay
James Kenneth McManus , better known by his professional name of Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist....

.

Opening section

Giant video screens showed Canadian snowboarder Johnny Lyall sliding down a mountain slope, with people holding torches in the shape of the Canadian symbol, the maple leaf
Maple leaf
The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.-Use in Canada:At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...

, while the dates and locations of previous Winter Olympic games were recalled in voiceover. This concluded with Lyall leaping through a set of Olympic Rings, while snow and ice exploded off them and into the stadium, and him welcoming the crowd.

National anthem

A guard of honour mounted by the RCMP
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 marched the Canadian Flag
Flag of Canada
The national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...

 to the flagpost. There a guard of honour composed of Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

 members raised the flag. Nikki Yanofsky
Nikki Yanofsky
Nicole "Nikki" Yanofsky is a Canadian jazz-pop singer from Hampstead, Quebec. She is involved in charitable causes, and released her first studio album on her own label, A440 Entertainment, and on Decca Records outside of Canada. Yanofsky sang Canada's national anthem at the opening ceremonies of...

 performed an arrangement of the national anthem, "O Canada
O Canada
It has been noted that the opening theme of "O Canada" bears a strong resemblance to the "Marsch der Priester" , from the opera Die Zauberflöte , composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that Lavallée's melody was inspired by Mozart's tune...

", singing in English and French.

Welcome by the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada

The First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 in whose traditional territories the games were held - the Squamish Nation, Musqueam Indian Band
Musqueam Indian Band
The Musqueam Indian Band is a First Nations government in the Canadian province of British Columbia, and is the only Indian band whose reserve community lies within the boundaries of the City of Vancouver....

, Lil'wat First Nation
Lil'wat First Nation
The Lil'wat First Nation, aka the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nations government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia...

, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nation
Tsleil-Waututh First Nation
The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, also known as the Burrard Indian Band or Burrard Band, is a First Nations government in the Canadian Province of British Columbia...

 - were recognized as heads of state and seated directly behind the Canadian Governor General and the Prime Minister. Four Coast Salish welcome poles were raised from the centre of the stadium, and greetings were given to the crowd (and the world) by members of the Four Host First Nations in their respective languages as well as English and French. The arms of the poles were raised in a traditional gesture of greeting to welcome the athletes and the world. Following the greetings, groups of dancers from other main culture-regions of aboriginal societies within Canada were introduced, including the Métis Nation and the Inuit, as well as the Peoples of the Northwest, the Peoples of the Plains, the Peoples of the East, and the Peoples of the Arctic, and took places around the welcome poles and a large drum surface between them, forming a welcome circle to prepare for the forthcoming Parade of the Nations and danced traditional welcoming dances as the athletes paraded in.

Parade of the Nations

The participating countries marched in, with Greece
Greece at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Greece participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.- Alpine skiing:- Biathlon:- Cross-country skiing:-External links:* *...

 coming first, then the other nations ending with the host nation, Canada
Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Canada hosted and participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canada previously hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Canada sent a team of 206 athletes , including participants in all 15 sports...

. The names of the nations were announced first in French and followed by English, the official languages of the Olympics, which also happened to be the official languages of the host nation. The nations entered in alphabetic order of their country names in English because it is the more dominant of the two languages in Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia.

The team from Georgia
Georgia at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Georgia participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with a team of 8 athletes. On the day of the opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in an accident while practicing during for games.- Alpine skiing:...

 was greeted with a standing ovation out of respect for their colleague, Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar David Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony...

, who died in a luge accident earlier that day. The team left an empty space in the processional and left the stadium immediately following the procession. They had indicated they would not participate in the opening ceremony or withdraw completely, but decided against doing so. The team wore black scarves and armbands to honor Kumaritashvili while a black ribbon was affixed to the team's flag. Teams from some countries, including Australia
Australia at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Australia participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A team of forty athletes was selected to compete in eleven sports...

 also wore black armbands in respect of Kumaritashvili.

The biggest ovation came near the end, when the host country, Canada, entered the stadium. China
China at the 2010 Winter Olympics
China participated at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sending its largest delegation at a Winter Olympics with 94 athletes...

, which hosted the last Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, also got a standing ovation due to the large Chinese population in Vancouver
Chinese Canadian
Chinese Canadians are Canadians of Chinese descent. They constitute the second-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian Canadians...

, as did the United States
United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics
The United States participated in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The U.S. team had a historic Winter Games, winning an unprecedented 37 medals. Team USA's medal haul, which included nine gold, marked the first time since the 1932 Lake Placid Games that the U.S....

, which received the loudest ovation before Canada entered two minutes later. Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan at the 2010 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiing :- Figure skating :...

 slipped in between the two countries, which share the longest undefended border in the world.

Athlete Tribute Song

Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...

 and Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...

, both themselves Vancouver residents performed "Bang the Drum", which was written by Adams and producer Jim Vallance
Jim Vallance
James Douglas "Jim" Vallance, OC is a retired Canadian musician, songwriter, arranger and producer based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known as the former songwriting partner of Canadian international recording artist Bryan Adams...

 as a tribute to the Olympic athletes present.

The Landscape of a Dream

The cultural section of the Opening Ceremony was titled "The Landscape of a Dream" whose purpose was to celebrate the diverse geography and people of Canada. It was directed by David Atkins
David Atkins
David Atkins, OAM was recognised in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the entertainment industry and is Australia’s most awarded producer, choreographer and director, and CEO of David Atkins Enterprises, a major-events production...

 and the narration was provided by Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

, himself one of the Olympic flag bearers. It featured tributes to different regions of Canada.

Hymns of the North

  • Tribute to Northern Canada
    Northern Canada
    Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...


The Hymns of the North segment featured a giant, sparkling puppet (one of the largest puppets ever created) of a spirit or kermode
Kermode bear
The Kermode bear , also known as a "spirit bear" , is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about 1/10 of their population having white or cream-coloured coats...

 bear that rose from the stadium floor, and hovered over the performers on a simulated ice floe.
  • Whales swimming while breathing was simulated until next transition.

Sacred Grove

  • Opened with Coast Salish welcome poles rising up, symbolizing welcome
  • Quote from My Heart Soars by Chief Dan George
  • Performance by Sarah McLachlan
    Sarah McLachlan
    Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...

    , herself a Vancouver resident though born in Halifax, of her song "Ordinary Miracle".

Rhythms of the Fall

This tribute to the fiddling traditions of Canada as well as French Canadians, particularly those of the Maritime Provinces, began with the appearance of the horned fiddler in a flying canoe, a reference to the story of the Chasse-galerie
Chasse-galerie
La Chasse-galerie also known as "The Bewitched Canoe" or "The Flying Canoe" is a popular French-Canadian tale of voyageurs who make a deal with the devil, a variant of the Wild Hunt. Its most famous version was written by Honoré Beaugrand...

. As the canoe descended from the ceiling, the opening of the song "The Old Ways" was performed by Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...

.
  • Fiddler/aerialist Colin Maier duelled with his shadow that appears on the moon. The stage was here covered with big red maple leaves. The song played during this sequence is the start of "The Old Ways",
  • There were six lead "Hero Fiddlers" on the centre stage, Andre Brunet, Daniel Lapp
    Daniel Lapp
    Daniel Lapp is a Canadian folk musician.He was a touring member of the folk rock band Spirit of the West in 1988 and 1989, but never appeared on any of the band's albums. Lapp and Linda McRae replaced Hugh McMillan during MacMillan's hiatus from the band following the 1988 album Labour Day. Lapp...

    , Sierra Noble, Samantha Robichard, April Verch
    April Verch
    April Verch is a Canadian fiddler and step dancer born and raised in the small community of Rankin, Ontario, located approximately 15 km southwest from Pembroke, Ontario. She attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston before embarking on her professional career...

     and Ashley MacIsaac
    Ashley MacIsaac
    Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac is a Canadian professional fiddler from Cape Breton Island.His album Hi™ How Are You Today?, featuring the hit single "Sleepy Maggie", with vocals in Scottish Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond was released in 1995...

    .
  • A tap dancer called a river to encircle the main podium.
    • Dance by Brock Jellison


At some point in this section, Calvin Vollrath
Calvin Vollrath
Calvin Vollrath is a Canadian fiddler and composer. He is one of the best fiddlers in the world. He is also one of the few European-Canadian fiddle players playing professionally in the Métis style. He lives in Alberta....

 who was sitting next to the orchestra, performed "Fiddle Nation", a tune he'd composed.

This portion of the ceremony was concluded by Ashley MacIsaac
Ashley MacIsaac
Ashley Dwayne MacIsaac is a Canadian professional fiddler from Cape Breton Island.His album Hi™ How Are You Today?, featuring the hit single "Sleepy Maggie", with vocals in Scottish Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond was released in 1995...

 who performed his version of the traditional nineteenth century strathspey
Strathspey (dance)
A strathspey is a type of dance tune in 4/4 time. It is similar to a hornpipe but slower and more stately, and contains many dot-cut 'snaps'. A so-called Scotch snap is a short note before a dotted note, which in traditional playing is generally exaggerated rhythmically for musical expression...

 "Devil in the Kitchen".

Who Has Seen the Wind

  • Tribute to Canadian Prairies
    • A quote from the novel Who Has Seen the Wind? by W. O. Mitchell
      W. O. Mitchell
      William Ormond Mitchell, PC, OC better known as W.O. Mitchell was a Canadian writer.-Early life and career:...

  • Song: "Both Sides, Now" by Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell
    Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

  • Thomas Saulgrain (L'École nationale de cirque) performed the ballet on fly wire.

Peaks of Endeavour

  • Tribute to the Canadian Rockies and Western Canada
    • Narration quotation by George Vancouver
      George Vancouver
      Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...

    • Skiers and snowboarders hung from wires to simulate going down the artificial mountain in the middle of the stadium.
    • Images of winter sports in action were seen on the mountain.
    • Inline skaters mimicked figure skaters and speed skaters, circling the artificial mountain.
    • The projection on the mountain changed from winter sports to the Vancouver skyline.
    • On the stage, after the mountain transformed into the skyline of Vancouver, colored lines of light representing flowing traffic surrounded the mountain.

We Are More

Shane Koyczan
Shane Koyczan
Shane L. Koyczan is a Canadian poet and writer. Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Koyczan grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the US National Poetry Slam. Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R...

 performed slam poetry
Slam poetry
A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.-History:...

, a variation on his "We Are More". (transcript)
Performers formed a giant maple leaf around Koyczan with red flares to end off his section.

Opening remarks/Official Opening

The opening remarks began with Jacques Rogge
Jacques Rogge
Jacques Rogge, Count Rogge , is a Belgian sports bureaucrat. He is the eighth and current President of the International Olympic Committee .-Life and career:...

, President of the IOC
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

, who offered sympathy for the loss of Georgian luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar David Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony...

. A welcome from John Furlong
John Furlong (Canadian)
John Furlong, O.C, O.B.C was the President and Chief Executive Officer of VANOC which oversaw the preparation and execution of the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics Games...

, Chair of the Vancouver Organizing Committee
Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was the non-profit organization responsible for planning, organizing, financing and staging the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics...

, was then delivered. (transcript) A statement by Rogge followed, mixing English and French. Finally, Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation, from 2005 to 2010....

, Governor General of Canada
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

, declared the games officially open, first in French, then in English.

Song of Peace

k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...

 performed a version of Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

's "Hallelujah". While she was singing, doves
Doves
Doves are an English alternative indie rock band, originating from Wilmslow, Cheshire. The band comprises brothers Jez Williams and Andy Williams , and Jimi Goodwin . The members started working seriously together after meeting at The Haçienda in Manchester. Doves' unofficial fourth member is...

, the symbol of peace, were projected on the stage floor, and rose from the stage floor to the ceiling via columns to symbolize their release.

Entry of the Olympic Flag

Former hockey star Bobby Orr
Bobby Orr
Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, OC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Orr played in the National Hockey League for his entire career, the first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins, joining the Chicago Black Hawks for two more. Orr is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest...

; musician Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....

; Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 champion Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Villeneuve
Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve, , is a Canadian musician and automobile racing driver. He is the son of the late Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, and is the namesake of his uncle...

; Betty Fox
Betty Fox
Betty Lou Fox was a Canadian cancer research activist, the mother of Terry Fox and founder of the Terry Fox Foundation. She was the most prominent figure in Terry Fox's legacy .-Biography:...

, the mother of cancer research champion Terry Fox
Terry Fox
Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox , was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research...

; actor Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

; gold medal figure skater Barbara Ann Scott; UNAMIR commander Roméo Dallaire
Roméo Dallaire
Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire, is a Canadian senator, humanitarian, author and retired general...

; and Julie Payette
Julie Payette
Julie Payette, OC, CQ is a Canadian engineer and a Canadian Space Agency astronaut. Payette has completed two spaceflights, STS-96 and STS-127, logging more than 25 days in space...

, Canadian astronaut, carried the flag into the stadium. They then transferred the flag to members of the RCMP, who then raised the flag. Canadian opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singer Measha Brueggergosman
Measha Brueggergosman
Measha Brueggergosman is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards...

 sang the Olympic Hymn, mixing English and French.

Afterwards, a minute of silence was observed for the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Nodar David Kumaritashvili was a Georgian luger, who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Vancouver, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony...

's death, during which time both the Canadian and Olympic flags were lowered to half-staff
Half-staff
Half-staff is the American term for to describe a flag flying a flag below the summit of the flagpole . The rest of the English-speaking world uses the term half-mast. Technically the flag should be flown one breadth lower to allow for the invisible flag of death...

. Upon learning of Kumaritashvili's death, the Governor General of Canada
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

-in-Council
Queen-in-Council
The Queen-in-Council is, in each of the Commonwealth realms, the technical term of constitutional law that refers to the exercise of executive authority, denoting the monarch acting by and with the advice and consent of his or her privy council or executive council The Queen-in-Council (during...

 ordered flags on federal government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

 buildings throughout the province of British Columbia, including at all Olympic venues, flown at half-mast until midnight, February 13, 2010.

Olympic Oaths

Canadian woman's ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player Hayley Wickenheiser
Hayley Wickenheiser
Hayley Wickenheiser is a women's ice hockey player from Canada. She was the first woman to play full time professional hockey in a position other than goalie. Wickenheiser is a member of the Canada women's national ice hockey team...

 took the oath on behalf of all 2010 Olympic athletes in English, while the officials' oath was taken by short track speed skating
Short track speed skating
Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m...

 referee Michel Verrault
Michel Verrault
Michel Verrault is a Canadian short-track speed skating referee from Lac Beauport, Quebec. He recited the Judges Oath at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, alongside Hayley Wickenheiser for the Athletes' Oath....

 in French.

Song

Garou
Garou (singer)
Garou , from the French expression "loup-garou", which means "werewolf" and is a transformation of "Garand", his last name; is a Canadian singer from Sherbrooke, Quebec. He is known for his work in the musical Notre-Dame de Paris and the #1 hits "Belle", "Seul", "Sous le vent", and "La Rivière de...

 sang "Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin" (A Little Higher, A Little Further), written by Jean-Pierre Ferland
Jean-Pierre Ferland
Jean-Pierre Ferland, OC, CQ is a Canadian singer and songwriter.-Life and career:Ferland began work with Radio-Canada in 1956 as an accountant, but his career there was short lived. Shortly after, he began taking guitar lessons with Stephen Fentock and began to fall in love with music, writing his...

.

Lighting of the Cauldron

Rick Hansen
Rick Hansen
Richard M. Hansen, CC, OBC is a Canadian Paralympian and an activist for people with spinal cord injuries. Following a car crash at the age of 15, Hansen sustained a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the waist down. Hansen is most famous for his Man In Motion World Tour...

, paraplegic athlete and paralympic medalist, carried the flame into BC Place stadium and lit the torch of speed skater Catriona Le May Doan, who in turn lit the torch of basketball All-Star Steve Nash
Steve Nash
Stephen John "Steve" Nash, OC, OBC is a South African-born Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association . Nash enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually given a scholarship by Santa Clara...

. Nash then lit skier Nancy Greene
Nancy Greene
Nancy Catherine Greene, OC, OBC, OD is a Canadian Senator for British Columbia and a champion alpine skier voted as Canada's Female Athlete of the 20th Century...

's torch who lit the torch of Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...

, Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...

 hockey player. Le May Doan, Nash, Greene, and Gretzky then made their way to their four pre-determined locations on the stadium floor to await the raising of the cauldron.

Due to a malfunction of the Olympic cauldron's hydraulic
Hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...

 system, only three of the four arms came up before it was lit. Le May Doan's designated arm of the cauldron had malfunctioned, so she stood by as the other three athletes lit the cauldron at the same time by touching the base of the arms with their respective torches. After the cauldron was lit, a series of red fireworks were shot off in a ring around the exterior of the stadium. Gretzky then jogged out of the stadium, where he was then driven by police escorts through the streets of downtown Vancouver to light a second, outdoor cauldron near the Vancouver Convention Centre located in the city's downtown waterfront district. Under IOC rules, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron must be witnessed by those attending the opening ceremony, implying that it must be lit at the location where the ceremony is taking place. Although another IOC rule states that the cauldron should be witnessed outside by the entire residents of the entire host city, this was not possible since the ceremony took place indoors. However, VANOC secretly built a second outdoor cauldron next to the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, and Gretzky was secretly chosen to light this permanent cauldron. Quickly word spread through the downtown Vancouver area that Gretzky was indeed the final torchbearer, and very soon a crush of people came running after the police escort to cheer Gretzky on and hopefully catch a glimpse of him carrying the torch to the outdoor cauldron.

The closing ceremony
2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony
The Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics took place on February 28, 2010, beginning at 5:30 pm PST at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...

 of the games would begin with a tongue-in-cheek homage to the incident, featuring mime Yves Dagenais repairing and finally raising the missing arm of the cauldron, and offering Le May Doan a chance to finally light her arm of the interior cauldron.

Dignitaries and other officials in attendance

  • Michaëlle Jean
    Michaëlle Jean
    Michaëlle Jean is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation, from 2005 to 2010....

    , Governor General of Canada
    Governor General of Canada
    The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

  • Jean-Daniel Lafond
    Jean-Daniel Lafond
    Jean-Daniel Lafond CC is a French-born Canadian filmmaker, and the husband to the former Governor General Michaëlle Jean, making him the Viceregal Consort of Canada during her service.-Biography:...

    , Viceregal consort of Canada
    Viceregal consort of Canada
    The viceregal consort of Canada is the spouse of the serving governor general of Canada, assisting the viceroy with ceremonial and charitable work, accompanying him or her to official state occasions, and occasionally undertaking philanthropic work of their own...

  • Stephen Harper
    Stephen Harper
    Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

    , Prime Minister of Canada
    Prime Minister of Canada
    The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

  • Laureen Harper
    Laureen Harper
    Laureen Ann Harper is the wife of Canada's 22nd Prime Minister Stephen Harper.-Life and career:The eldest of three, Teskey was born in Turner Valley, a rural town south-west of Calgary, Alberta. Her parents were ranchers and owned an electrical contracting company; the Teskeys divorced in 1991,...

    , Spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada
    Spouses of the Prime Ministers of Canada
    The spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada is the wife or husband of the Prime Minister of Canada. To date, 18 women have been the wife of the Prime Minister of Canada; Kim Campbell, Canada's only female prime minister to date, was unmarried during her time in office...

  • Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia
    Premier of British Columbia
    The Premier of British Columbia is the first minister, head of government, and de facto chief executive for the Canadian province of British Columbia. Until the early 1970s the title Prime Minister of British Columbia was often used...

    , and his wife Nancy Campbell
  • Chiefs of the Four Host First Nations whose traditional lands the Olympics are hosted on (treated as heads of state):
    • Lil'wat
      Lil'wat First Nation
      The Lil'wat First Nation, aka the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nations government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia...

       Chief Leonard Andrew
    • Musqueam Chief Ernie Campbell
    • Squamish Chief Bill Williams
    • Tsleil-Waututh Chief Justin George
  • Toomas Hendrik Ilves
    Toomas Hendrik Ilves
    Toomas Hendrik Ilves is the fourth and current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament...

    , President of Estonia
    President of Estonia
    The President of the Republic is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia.Estonia is a parliamentary republic, therefore President is mainly a symbolic figure and holds no executive power. The President has to suspend his membership in any political party for his term in office...

  • Evelin Ilves
    Evelin Ilves
    Evelin Ilves is the First Lady of Estonia, married to Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the current President of Estonia....

    , First Lady of Estonia
  • Laine Jänes
    Laine Jänes
    Laine Randjärv is an Estonian politician from the Reform Party. She was the Mayor of Tartu from 23 September 2004 to 2007, and previously she was Deputy Mayor from 2002 to 2004. 2007–2011 she served as the Minister of Culture in Andrus Ansip's second government...

    , Estonian minister of culture
  • Mikheil Saakashvili
    Mikheil Saakashvili
    Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party.Involved in the national politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003...

    , President of Georgia
    President of Georgia
    The President of Georgia is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Government of Georgia. Executive power is split between the President and the Prime Minister, who is the head of government...

  • Valdis Zatlers
    Valdis Zatlers
    Valdis Zatlers is a Latvian politician and former physician who served as the seventh president of Latvia from 2007 to 2011. He won the Latvian presidential election of 31 May 2007...

    , President of Latvia
  • Albert II
    Albert II, Prince of Monaco
    Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco is the head of the House of Grimaldi and the ruler of the Principality of Monaco. He is the son of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and the American actress Grace Kelly...

    , Prince of Monaco
    Prince of Monaco
    The Reigning Prince or Princess of Monaco is the sovereign monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All Princes or Princesses thus far have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi, but have belonged to various other houses in male line...

  • Doris Leuthard
    Doris Leuthard
    Doris Leuthard is a Swiss politician and lawyer. Since 1 August 2006, she has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council. From 1 August 2006 till 31 October 2010 she was head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs...

    , President of the Swiss Federal Council
    Swiss Federal Council
    The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....

  • Joe Biden
    Joe Biden
    Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...

    , Vice President of the United States
    Vice President of the United States
    The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

  • Jill Biden
    Jill Biden
    Jill Tracy Biden is an American educator and, as the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is the Second Lady of the United States....

    , Second Lady of the United States
    Second Lady of the United States
    Second lady of the United States is an informal title for the wife of the vice president of the United States, coined in contrast to the first lady ....

  • Alexander Zhukov
    Alexander Zhukov
    Alexander Dmitriyevich Zhukov is a Russian economist and politician, member of the State Duma . He is the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation since 9 March 2004.-Family:...

     - Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and President of the Russian Olympic Committee
  • Prince Konstantinos-Alexios of Greece and Denmark son of the Greek Royal Family
    Greek Royal Family
    The Greek Royal Family was a branch of the House of Glücksburg that reigned in Greece from 1863 to 1924 and again from 1935 to 1973. Its first monarch was George I. He and his successors styled themselves "Kings of the Hellenes"...

  • Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
    Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
    Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, is the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. Frederik is the elder son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik, the Prince Consort.-Name and christening:...

  • Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
    Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
    Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, is the wife of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark...

  • John Dowling Coates
    John Dowling Coates
    John Dowling Coates AC is an Australian lawyer, sports administrator and businessman.He is a member of the International Olympic Committee and is the current president of the Australian Olympic Committee and chairman of the Australian Olympic Foundation.- Personal :Born in Sydney, the son of a...

     - Member of the International Olympic Committee representing Australia
    Australia
    Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

    .
  • Gerhard Heiberg
    Gerhard Heiberg
    Jens Gerhard Heiberg is a Norwegian industrialist who was head of the Lillehammer Olympic Organising Committee and the Lillehammer Paralympic Organizing Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee....

     - Current IOC member representing Norway
    Norway
    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

  • Sir Craig Reedie
    Craig Reedie
    Sir Craig Reedie, CBE is a British sports administrator, noteworthy as a former Chairman of the British Olympic Association and still a serving representative on the International Olympic Committee.- Background :...

     - Current IOC member representing Great Britain
    Great Britain
    Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

  • Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
    Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
    Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange is the eldest child of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus. Since 1980 he is the heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is also the head of the House of Amsberg since the death of his father in 2002. He was in military service and he studied...

  • Princess Máxima of the Netherlands
    Princess Máxima of the Netherlands
    Princess Máxima of the Netherlands is the wife of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, heir apparent to the throne of the Netherlands.-Early life and education:...

  • Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands
    Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands
    The official origins of her given names:*Catharina has been speculated to be after Henriette Catherine of Nassau *Amalia is after Amalia of Solms-Braunfels *Beatrix is after her paternal grandmother, the Queen of the Netherlands...

  • Princess Alexia of the Netherlands
    Princess Alexia of the Netherlands
    Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau is the second daughter of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, his spouse...

  • Princess Ariane of the Netherlands
    Princess Ariane of the Netherlands
    Princess Ariane of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau is the daughter of heir apparent to the throne of the Netherlands Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima...

  • Thomas Bach
    Thomas Bach
    Thomas Bach is a German fencer and, as of 2009, a vice-president and member of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee...

     - Current IOC Vice President and member of the IOC representing Germany.
  • Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
    Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
    Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway is the heir apparent to the throne of Norway. On birth he was named Prince Haakon Magnus but it was stressed in the announcement that he would go by the name Haakon. He became Crown Prince Haakon when his father ascended to the crown as Harald V in 1991...

    , lighter of the cauldron at the Lillehammer Olympics
    1994 Winter Olympics
    The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...

  • Anne, Princess Royal
    Anne, Princess Royal
    Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

  • Jan Fischer
    Jan Fischer (politician)
    Jan Fischer was Prime Minister of the caretaker government of Czech Republic in 2009−2010. A lifelong statistician, he was previously the president of the Czech Statistical Office since April 2003.- Personal life and education :...

    , Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
  • Jan Peter Balkenende
    Jan Peter Balkenende
    Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende is a Dutch politician of the party Christian Democratic Appeal .He was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010, having led four coalition governments, cabinets Balkenende I, II, III and IV, none of which served a full...

    , Prime Minister of the Netherlands
    Prime Minister of the Netherlands
    The Prime Minister of the Netherlands is the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands. He is the de facto head of government of the Netherlands and coordinates the policy of the government...

  • Mario Pescante
    Mario Pescante
    Mario Pescante is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He is a vice president of the International Olympic Committee and president of Rome's bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.-Biography:...

     - Current IOC member representing Italy.
  • Dmitry Kozak
    Dmitry Kozak
    Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak , is a Russian politician, serving since October 2008 as deputy Prime minister of the Russian Federation....

    , Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
    Dmitry Kozak
    Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak , is a Russian politician, serving since October 2008 as deputy Prime minister of the Russian Federation....

  • Faruk Nafız Özak
    Faruk Nafiz Özak
    Faruk Nafız Özak is Public Works and Housing Minister of Turkey.He graduated from Civil Engineering Department at Karadeniz Technical University. He was the captain of the Turkish soccer giants Trabzonspor, and once sportsman of the year. He became chairman of the same club in 1996. He was elected...

    , Minister of State
    Cabinet of Turkey
    The Cabinet of Turkey comprises the heads of the major ministries. Ministers are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister...

     for Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

  • Tessa Jowell
    Tessa Jowell
    Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...

    , Minister for the Olympics of the United Kingdom
    Minister for the Olympics
    The Minister for the Olympics was a position within the United Kingdom Government created on 6 July 2005 as a result of the selection of London to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and was merged into the position of Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport in May 2010.Tessa Jowell was...

  • David Jacobson
    David Jacobson (diplomat)
    David Cary Jacobson is an American lawyer who is the current United States Ambassador to Canada.A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Law Center, he spent much of his career working in the Chicago offices of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, a major international law firm...

    , United States Ambassador to Canada
  • Valerie Jarrett
    Valerie Jarrett
    Valerie Bowman Jarrett is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. She is a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader...

    , Senior Advisor to the President of the United States
    Senior Advisor
    In some countries, a Senior Advisor is an appointed position by the Head of State to advise on the highest levels of national and government policy. Sometimes a junior position to this is called a National Policy Advisor...

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....

    , Governor of California
    Governor of California
    The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...

  • Mario Vázquez Raña
    Mario Vazquez Raña
    Mario Vázquez Raña is a Mexican businessman and sports administrator, who has served on both national and Olympic committees...

    , President of the both the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
  • John Coates, President of the Australian Olympic Committee
    Australian Olympic Committee
    The Australian Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee in Australia for the Olympic Games movement. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams, and raises funds to send Australian competitors to Olympic events organised by the International Olympic Committee .-Background:The...

  • Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco
    Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco
    Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco , is the princess consort of King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the first wife of a Moroccan ruler to have been publicly acknowledged and given a royal title....

    .
  • Mohammed VI of Morocco
    Mohammed VI of Morocco
    Mohammed VI is the present King of Morocco and Amir al-Mu'minin . He ascended to the throne on 23 July 1999 upon the death of his father.-Education:...

    , King of Morocco.
  • Horst Köhler
    Horst Köhler
    Horst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union. He was President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on...

    , President of Germany
  • Juan Antonio Samaranch
    Juan Antonio Samaranch
    Don Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquis of Samaranch, Grandee of Spain , known in Catalan as Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló , was a Catalan Spanish sports administrator who served as the seventh President of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001...

    , former president of the IOC
  • Maria Teresa Samaranch - President of the Spanish Federation of Sports
  • Jacques Rogge
    Jacques Rogge
    Jacques Rogge, Count Rogge , is a Belgian sports bureaucrat. He is the eighth and current President of the International Olympic Committee .-Life and career:...

    , current president of the IOC
  • Dick Pound
    Dick Pound
    Richard William Duncan Pound, is a Canadian lawyer, partner of the law firm Stikeman Elliott, the former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency based in Montreal, and former chancellor of McGill University...

    , Current member of the IOC (Canada) and former head of WADA.
  • Rene Fasel
    René Fasel
    René Fasel DMD is a Swiss dentist and ice hockey official. He started his ice hockey career as a player for HC Fribourg-Gottéron, in 1960, and became a referee in 1972 and president of Switzerland's ice hockey federation in 1985. In 1994 he was elected president of the International Ice Hockey...

    , President of the IIHF
  • Leandro Negre, President of the FIH
    International Hockey Federation
    The International Field Hockey Federation is the global governing body of field hockey...

  • Richard Carrión
    Richard Carrion
    Richard L. Carrion Rexach is the current Chairman and CEO of Popular, Inc., parent company of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Banco Popular North America and E-Loan.-Early life:...

     Current IOC member representing, Puerto Rico
    Puerto Rico
    Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

    .
  • Nawal El Moutawakel
    Nawal El Moutawakel
    Nawal El Moutawakel is a Moroccan hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 m hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first female Muslim born on the continent of Africa to become an Olympic champion. She was also the first Moroccan and the first woman from a Muslim...

    , Former Olympic gold medalist and current IOC member representing, Morocco
    Morocco
    Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

    .
  • Sam Ramsamy
    Sam Ramsamy
    Sam Ramsamy is an educator, activist and sports administrator from South Africa.Ramsamy was a physical education lecturer and a primary school teacher....

    , Current IOC member representing, South Africa
    South Africa
    The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

    .

Media comments

  • Toronto Star
    Toronto Star
    The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

    arts critic Richard Ouzounian
    Richard Ouzounian
    Richard Ouzounian is a Canadian journalist and theatre artist. He is currently the chief theatre critic for the Toronto Star and the Canadian theatre correspondent for Variety.-Life and career:...

     gave the ceremony a negative review, blasting the proceedings as "an unimaginatively conceived and loosely executed spectacle that promised much and delivered little."
  • The New York Times Charles McGrath described the event as "like New Year’s Eve, but a tasteful, well-behaved New Year’s Eve", and that it was "authentically and unabashedly Canadian".
  • Cleve Deenshaw of the Times-Colonist (Victoria) described the ceremony as "moving and memorable."
  • Paul Wells
    Paul Wells
    Paul Wells is a Canadian journalist and pundit, currently working as a columnist for Maclean's. His column previously appeared in the back page slot famously occupied for many years by Allan Fotheringham, but is now kept at the front of the magazine with other columns.- Background :Wells was born...

     of
    Maclean's
    Maclean's
    Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...

    described the event as "sometimes incomprehensible, but sometimes heart-stoppingly beautiful."
  • Also from Maclean's, Wayne Gretzky's trip on a truck through downtown Vancouver to the waterfront cauldron was described as a "redneck
    Redneck
    Redneck is a historically derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States...

     Popemobile
    Popemobile
    Popemobile is an informal name for the specially designed motor vehicles used by the pope during outdoor public appearances without having to employ the antiquated and often impractical sedia gestatoria. The Popemobile was designed to allow the pope to be more visible when greeting large crowds...

    " by writer Scott Feschuk
    Scott Feschuk
    Scott Feschuk is a Canadian speechwriter, humorist and former newspaper journalist.His journalism career began at The Globe and Mail. After five years as a TV and political columnist for the National Post, he left the newspaper in 2004 to become chief speechwriter for then Prime Minister Paul...

    .
  • The Ottawa Citizen
    Ottawa Citizen
    The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...

    s Mark Sutcliffe deemed the occasion "tasteful but dull, well-behaved and sometimes thoughtful. You've got Canada nailed." He also found the ceremony lacked a portrayal of contemporary urban Canadian society.
  • Nikki Yanofsky's performance of "O Canada" received mixed reactions. McGrath panned the performance as a "power ballad" while Ouzounian deemed it an "uncomfortable alliance of pop and jazz". Conversely, Wells praised the "gorgeously languid" singing while Alex Strachan of Canwest News Service
    Canwest News Service
    Postmedia News is a national news agency with correspondents in Canada, Europe, and the United States and is part of the Canadian newspaper chain owned by Postmedia Network Inc.-History:...

     also had a generally positive reaction taking exception only to a "backbeat" in the arrangement. Trevor Payne
    Trevor W. Payne
    Trevor Winston Payne, CM, is a Canadian musician and member of the Order of Canada .He was born in Black Rock, Barbados, on the 21 December 1948. He became a Canadian citizen in 1982, the country he moved to in 1958. He and his family landed in the city of Montreal where he still resides today...

     of the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir
    Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir
    The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir is a choir from Montreal, Quebec, Canada that sings primarily Gospel music.- Musical career :The choir was founded and directed by Trevor W. Payne in 1982 and gave its first performance at the St. James United Church in Montreal. The first members primarily...

     took issue with the "arrangement and interpretation" of the anthem but also found that Yanofsky was "gifted" in terms of vocal quality.

Bilingualism

James Moore
James Moore (Canadian politician)
James Moore, PC, MP is the Canadian Member of Parliament for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam. He is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada...

, the Minister of Canadian Heritage
Minister of Canadian Heritage
The Minister of Canadian Heritage is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who heads the Department of Canadian Heritage, the federal government department responsible for Canada's Arts, Culture, Media, Communications network, and Sport....

, and Quebec Premier Jean Charest
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....

 both expressed disappointment in the limited amount of French content during the ceremony. The Canadian Commissioner of Official Languages
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, an office of the Canadian government, is responsible for achieving the objectives of, and promoting, Canada's Official Languages Act....

, Graham Fraser, was of the impression that the event was "developed, perceived and presented in English with a French song." Fraser's office received numerous complaints regarding the ceremony. VANOC, however, defended the case and said that they had made "a very deliberate focus and effort to ensure a strong celebration of Quebec culture and language." They also said that there was a significant amount of French in the opening ceremony. David Atkins
David Atkins
David Atkins, OAM was recognised in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the entertainment industry and is Australia’s most awarded producer, choreographer and director, and CEO of David Atkins Enterprises, a major-events production...

 said that the ceremonies did celebrate francophone Canada.

Multiculturalism

There are critics saying that 41% of Metro Vancouver residents are visible minorities yet these groups are mostly absent from the opening ceremony. VANOC CEO John Furlong
John Furlong (Canadian)
John Furlong, O.C, O.B.C was the President and Chief Executive Officer of VANOC which oversaw the preparation and execution of the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics Games...

 hints that VANOC will try to address this issue in the closing ceremony.

Television

The international television audience varied from source. VANOC estimated more than a billion.

North American ratings

On both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, this opening ceremony drew high television ratings.

In Canada, this ceremony aired on the CTV Television Network
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

 and 10 other channels (all part of a CTV-Rogers media consortium
Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium
Established in 2007, Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium is a joint venture set up by Canadian media companies Bell Media and Rogers Media to produce the Canadian broadcasts of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the London 2012 Olympics Games...

), in a total of 11 languages. The broadcast drew an average of 13.3 million viewers across the country at any given moment, and 23 million Canadians, 69 percent of the national audience, watching at least a portion of the 3.5-hour ceremony. This was the most watched Canadian television event in history until the Canada-U.S. gold medal game during the Olympics, as that drew 16.6 million viewers.

South of the border, NBC
Olympics on NBC
NBC Sports' coverage of the Olympic Games consists of broadcasts on the various networks of NBC Universal in the United States, including the NBC broadcast network, Spanish language network Telemundo, and many of the company's cable networks....

 reported an average of 32.6 million viewers, making it the second-most watched non-United States Winter Olympics, behind the Lillehammer Games in 1994
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...

, which drew 33.8 million, and the third most-watched non-United States Olympics, behind the previous one
2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time on August 8, 2008, as 8 is considered to be a lucky number. The number 8 is associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture...

, the Summer Olympics in Beijing two years before
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 (34.2 million) and Lillehammer, and with 67.5 million viewers watching at least a portion of it, it was the most watched non-United States Winter Olympics, and the second-most watched non-United States Olympics, behind Beijing, as that drew 69.9 million viewers.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack, Sounds of Vancouver 2010: Opening Ceremony Commemorative Album , was released through the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

 on February 12, 2010, containing many studio recordings of the performances from the opening ceremony. It charted at #6 on the Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

, and has sold over 50,000 copies. The song performed by Garou
Garou (singer)
Garou , from the French expression "loup-garou", which means "werewolf" and is a transformation of "Garand", his last name; is a Canadian singer from Sherbrooke, Quebec. He is known for his work in the musical Notre-Dame de Paris and the #1 hits "Belle", "Seul", "Sous le vent", and "La Rivière de...

, "Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin", was released on the accompanying soundtrack for the closing ceremony.
Charts (2010) Peak
position
Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

6
Digital Albums Chart 2

See also

  • 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony
    2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony
    The Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics took place on February 28, 2010, beginning at 5:30 pm PST at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...

  • 2010 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony
    2010 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony
    The Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Paralympics was held on March 12, 2010 beginning at 6:00 pm PST at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada....



External links


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