Russia’s Winter Olympics officially got underway on the Black Sea coast yesterday with a grandiose opening ceremony that President Vladimir Putin hoped would dispel fears of militant attacks and a row over gay rights that marred the buildup.
Putin has staked his reputation on hosting a safe and successful Games in the resort town of Sochi, where a colourful, sometimes muddled show before 40,000 spectators at the gleaming Fisht Stadium signalled the start of full sporting competition.
“I declare the 22nd Winter Olympic Games open,” said Putin, launching an event he has personally overseen and expects will burnish Russia’s, and his own, image on the world stage.
In an embarrassing early technical glitch, one of the five Olympic rings suspended high above the stage failed to unfurl, meaning that the giant structure could not be illuminated by fireworks as planned.
But the show went on, blending cartoon-style inflatable domes, spectacular ballroom dancing amid towering imperial columns, and giant avant-garde shapes hovering above symbols of revolution and upheaval in a sweep through Russian history.
Fireworks filled the sky above the Olympic park surrounding the arena in a rousing finale to a show that drew heavily on Russia’s rich heritage of classical music, literature and dance.
In a speech at the opening ceremony, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called for an inclusive Games.
“Yes, it is possible – even as competitors – to live together under one roof in harmony, with tolerance and without any form of discrimination for whatever reason,” he said beneath a fluttering Russian flag.
The honour of lighting the Sochi Olympic flame was given to two triple Olympic champions as Vladislav Tretyak and Irina Rodnina jointly lit the cauldron at Russia’s first Winter Games.
The 61-year-old Tretyak, who won three Olympic ice hockey golds and a silver as goaltender for the Soviet Union and is president of Russia’s ice hockey federation, received the torch from figure skater Rodnina and both jogged from the arena to ignite the flame.
The lighting was the finale of the longest-ever relay for a Winter Games that Putin wants to burnish Russia’s image on the world stage.
After a route that included the North Pole, the depths of Siberia’s Lake Baikal and even outer space, four-times tennis grand slam winner Maria Sharapova, who carried the Russian flag at the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, brought the flame into the 40,000-capacity Fisht Stadium.
She handed it to double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, who passed it to three-times Olympic champion wrestler Alexander Karelin.
Olympic champion gymnast-turned parliamentarian Alina Kabayeva, who Russian media have speculated is Putin’s girlfriend, was next in line.
Rodnina, who won a hat-trick of golds in the pairs event before entering the Russian parliament, took over before joining Tretyak in taking the flame outside the arena to its final resting place for the duration of the Games, which conclude on Feb. 23.
Today is the first full day of sporting action, with five gold medals to be decided.