The Olympic Games ceremonies have been held at the Olympic Games since they began in the ancient Olympics, including the opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Their purpose is to introduce and conclude the competition, award successful competitors, and often celebrate the culture and history of the host country. The ceremonies are integral to the Games and symbolize the international cooperation fostered in Olympic sporting events.
Ancient forerunners The ancient Olympics, held in Greece from to , provided the first examples of Olympic ceremonies. Their victory celebrations, elements of which persist in the modern-day medal and closing ceremonies, often involved elaborate feasts, drinking, singing, and poetry recitation. The wealthier the victor, the more extravagant the celebration. Victors were presented with an olive wreath or crown, harvested from a special tree in Olympia by a boy specially selected for this purpose, using a golden sickle. The festival concluded with the victors making solemn vows and performing ritual sacrifices to the gods to whom they were beholden.
There is evidence of dramatic change in the format of the ancient Games during the nearly 12 centuries that they were celebrated. By roughly the 77th Olympiad, a standard program was established. In order to open the Games in ancient Greece, the organizers held an inauguration festival, followed by a ceremony in which the athletes took an oath of sportsmanship. The first competition, an artistic contest of trumpeters and heralds, concluded the opening festivities.
Evolution of the ceremonies
The Olympic ceremonies have evolved over the centuries. The ancient Games incorporated ceremonies to mark the beginning and ending of every sporting event. There are similarities and differences between the ancient Olympic ceremonies and their modern counterparts. While the presentation of the Games has evolved with improvements in technology and the desire of the host nations to showcase their own artistic expression, the basic events of each ceremony have remained unchanged. The presentation of the opening and closing ceremonies continues to increase in scope, scale, and expense with each successive celebration of the Games, but they are still steeped in tradition.
Some elements of the modern ceremonies date 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. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the medal winners received a crown of olive branches—a direct reference to the ancient Games where the victor's prize was an olive wreath. The various elements of the ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter and cannot be changed. The host nation is required to seek the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for proposed ceremony elements, including the artistic portions of the opening and closing ceremonies.
Lighting of the Olympic flame
Several months before the start of each Summer and Winter Games, the Olympic flame is kindled during a ceremony held at the Stadium at Olympia, the main site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. An actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess (joined by a group of women representing the Vestal Virgins) uses a parabolic mirror placed at the nearby Temple of Hera to concentrate the rays of the sun to kindle the flame. If weather prevents the use of a parabolic mirror on the day of the ceremony, a backup flame that was lit during a prior dress rehearsal is used instead. The Olympic torch relay then begins with the priestess presenting the torch and an olive branch to the first relay bearer (usually a Greek athlete who has already qualified to compete in that edition of the Games), and the flame initially travels along its route through Greece. Before it leaves the country, a handover ceremony is held in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the Hellenic Olympic Committee transfers the flame to the current year's National Olympic Committee (NOC) and local Organizing Committee (OCOG) hosts.
Opening
While the Olympic Mass has inaugurated the Olympic Truce since 1896 to include the religious dimension of the Olympic Games, the Olympic opening ceremony represents the official commencement of the Olympic Games and the end of the current Olympic cycle. Due to the tight schedule of the Games, some of the sporting events usually start two or three days before the opening ceremony, including the preliminary rounds in ice hockey at the Winter Games and those in football at the Summer Games.
As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the opening ceremony of a celebration of the Olympic Games. Most of these rituals were established at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.
Tickets Tickets for an opening ceremony are often the most expensive and sought-after tickets of the Games. Unsurprisingly, this norm did not hold for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics because these Games were held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the 2020 Summer Olympics were held a year later in 2021. In accordance with strict pandemic protocols, the opening ceremonies took place with only invited guests attending.
Time of day
Since the 1996 Summer Olympics, the host committee has been required to stage the opening ceremony on a Friday evening. The 1980 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Moscow took place at sunset, marking the first time the ceremony was held in the evening. Eight years later, to facilitate a live, prime-time broadcast on Friday night in the Americas, the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Seoul was held in the morning, a move that faced criticism from the athletes due to the excessive heat.
The last opening ceremony to be held during daylight hours was at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Although this ceremony had originally been planned for the evening to comply with the rule from 1996, US broadcaster CBS also demanded a live, prime-time broadcast in the Americas. Rescheduling the start time to 11:00 am local time facilitated a grand finale which, for the first time in history, featured a live and synchronized performance by six international choirs, who were linked to the venue via satellite. This finale was a performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (from his Symphony No. 9); the locations included the Sydney Opera House, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and the UN General Assembly Building in New York City.
Artistic program The artistic program provides the idiosyncratic element of the opening ceremony. Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin's initial vision for the modern Olympics featured both athletic competitions and artistic achievements. As the modern Olympics have evolved into a celebration of sport, the opening ceremony most clearly exhibits Coubertin's overall ideal.
The host nation has the freedom to comprehensively showcase its past, present, and future through the artistic program; this serves as an international platform for the host to promote its national identity, soft power, and global image through a blend of tradition, innovation, and political symbolism. All protocols, artistic presentations, elements, and rituals included in the opening ceremony must be approved by the IOC Executive Board.
In accordance with current Olympic protocol, the opening ceremony typically begins with the entrance of the host nation's head of state (or other representative) and the president of the IOC, followed by the raising of the host nation's flag and the performance of its national anthem. The host then presents artistic displays of music, singing, dance, and theater representative of its culture, its history, and the current Olympic motto. These displays offer a unique opportunity for the host nation to promote itself among the thousands of spectators who are following the Games. Since the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, the artistic presentations have continued to grow in scale and complexity. The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, for example, reportedly cost US$100 million, much of that cost incurred in the artistic portion of the ceremony.
The host's Organizing Committee selects the theme that is incorporated into the elements of the opening ceremony, including the artistic program. For example, the theme of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was "Unity in China". On 12 May 2008, only four months before the start of the Games, a devastating earthquake occurred in Sichuan. Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming—chosen to be China's flagbearer at the opening ceremony—entered the stadium hand-in-hand with Lin Hao, a nine-year-old boy who had rescued some of his schoolmates following the earthquake.
The 2024 artistic program stirred controversy and drew criticism from some religious groups. According to Newsweek magazine, these groups contended that the performance "appeared to reflect the Last Supper, invoking sacred Christian imagery with dancers, drag queens, and a DJ (Barbara Butch) in poses that resembled Jesus Christ's final meal with His Apostles." Theater director Thomas Jolly responded that his plan was for a "big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus" and not to mock anyone. The show's organizers apologized to those offended by the "tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'" but defended the ideas behind it. The Olympic World Library later published a media guide (written before the ceremony), which mentioned the performance as an homage to cultural festivities; according to the Georgian fact-checking website, Myth Detector, many experts pointed out the differences between the fresco and the program segment.
Parade of Nations
The Olympic Charter determines that the opening ceremony must contain a protocol segment called the "Parade of Nations", during which most of the participating athletes march into the stadium, one delegation at a time. It is optional for athletes to participate in this parade. Because some Games events commonly start before the opening ceremony, any athletes competing in those early events may elect not to march with their team. Each delegation is led by a sign showing the name of its NOC and by its flagbearer(s), who are typically notable athletes from that delegation. Both men and women can be appointed to this honor, although female athletes began to consistently appear as flagbearers only from 1952 onwards; despite increasing inclusion over the years, they were outnumbered by their male counterparts (both in total and relative numbers) on all occasions until Tokyo 2020. As an act of gender equality, beginning in 2020, the IOC has allowed the participating NOCs the option of having two flagbearers, one male and one female. (Some countries had already chosen this approach before the option was initiated by the IOC.)
The Parade of Nations was added to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 1908. Since the 1928 Summer Olympics, the team from Greece has traditionally entered first, leading the parade in recognition of their role in the ancient Olympic Games; the host nation's team enters the stadium last. This practice was relaxed at the 1924, 1928, 1932, and 1960 opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, because Greece did not participate, as well as at the 2004 opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, because the Games were hosted by Greece; the Greek flagbearer Pyrros Dimas led the parade by himself, followed by the Saint Lucia delegation, while the rest of the Greek team entered last. Beginning with the 2020 Olympics, the Refugee Olympic Team enters second, after Greece; the parade ends with the host nations of the next two Olympic Games in descending order, as the final two teams before the host nation. (For example, at the 2020 opening ceremony, the final three NOCs in the parade were the US, France, and Japan—hosts of the 2028, 2024, and 2020 Games, respectively.)