Sports
Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony To Be Low-Key
The Rio de Janeiro Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday will be a break from recent tradition, an official said on Monday.
Executive producer Marco Balich said Friday’s event will break with the recent tradition of large-scale and expensive shows, featuring a low-emissions cauldron and an “analogue” experience.
With two days to go until the Games get underway, Balich said the show at the Maracana stadium would be tailored to the current economic conditions in the country.
“This is not an opulent event, given the situation in Brazil,” said Balich, who has been involved in several past Games ceremonies, including the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Brazil is suffering its worst recession since the 1930s with Games organisers struggling for cash and racing to finish venues and infrastructure projects days before the global showpiece event starts.
“It does not have the grandiosity of Beijing, the huge special effects of Athens, the eccentricity and technological skills of London. It is an analogue opening ceremony,” Balich said.
The show is based on the themes of sustainability, the Brazilian smile and “gambiarra”, the ability to keep functioning with makeshift fixes.
The ceremony is expected to cost about half the $42 million spent by London in 2012.
“Brazil has the last big garden (the Amazon rainforest) of the world. We need to take care of this garden and we tried to share this message, a message of hope,” Balich said.
“It is a very contemporary ceremony. Even without special effects, it talks to people about the future and in a very humble way. It is not a display of how good or modern Brazil is.”
It is noted that opening ceremonies are among the best-kept secrets of the Games along with the final torchbearer who will light the cauldron.
That cauldron, however, will not be like past big structures with huge flames, visible for miles.
“It will be a low-emission cauldron as it will be an oxymoron to talk about sustainability and then burn massive amounts of gas,” Balich said.
“It is a small burner with a kinetic sculpture.’’
While the real flame will only be accessible for Olympic stadium ticket holders, a smaller copy will be placed in a live site in central Rio for fans to take photos of.
Some 4,800 people will take part in the opening ceremony along with about 11,000 athletes, who will enter the stadium.
They will, due to the lack of a track, gather at the centre of the legendary football arena.
“The ceremony has a purpose,’’ Balich said. “Talking in a positive way in terms of sustainability. Doing a dry celebration is not enough.
“The fact that we are taking position might not make everyone happy, but that’s what it is.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
