The Opening Ceremony - Oliver Boyle
Aug15Written by:
15/08/2011 16:42 
We all got ready in our green Ireland tops and shorts and made our way up to the gate to wait for our bus - this was it, the start of the Opening Ceremony of the Games. We were dropped off by our bus near to the government building and walked from there to the area where we would have to wait before the ceremony.
We all jumped into get a team photo and it was kind of funny as everyone was pulling cameras out and a few people from other countries came up to take a photo of our team - pretty cool!! I helped our Head Coach Paul to bring some water up for the lads and then we got some food after 6pm. We were the 1st group there and when the rest of Team Ireland landed it was great to see every one.
I then went with one of our coaches John into this wonderful yellow and white building. We just went for a wander about and it was amazing inside it. There were so many other nations there too and as we were coming back, a girl from Colombia came up and gave me a wrist band of her colours. Luckily I had two Ireland pin badges left and I got a photo taken with her. It was really great as there were so many people walking about trying to get whatever badges they could from other nations
I then got back to our team and a few lads asked me to help them with getting their badges changed for different ones. I even helped one of our own medics to get a USA medic badge! I got one before when I was at our host town in Rhodes and gave that one away as I wasn’t really into badges but didn’t mind swapping them to help out others. So I went for a walk down to where the whole USA team was and along the way so many other countries came up asking for Irish badges. I only had the one left and was keeping it to swap it for a USA medic one. I had to pop from one USA person to the next one until finally I found my medic friend from Rhodes and got the badge I wanted. I was over the moon and so was our Irish medic when she saw me sticking it on her dog tag! My day was turning out to be a pretty good one.
After a while, the singing started and we had so much fun with Team Ireland singing all kinds of Irish songs. The Ecuador Special Olympics Team was next door in area 51 and they started singing too - we even got some video of it. After 2 hrs being there, we got into our group and started to move along with the other nations. We had to stop a few times as there were so many nations. Then a few famous people came down to see us and I got a few photos including one with Irish Rugby legend Keith Wood and Mary Davis from Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia who is running to be the next president of Ireland and I really hope she does get it!
Finally we got moving again and then we were standing right behind the big stage and this big blue pole going right up into the sky. This was it - the big one! We started walking slowly into the stadium at the Opening of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked in. It was hard to take photos as we were just waving to so many people who waved back as we walked down this big long black foot path that was part of the stage. It had volunteers to the right and left the whole way along who were shaking our hands and giving High 5’s.
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Enjoying the Opening Ceremony |
It was so amazing and there was a great buzz in the air. I was glad to be here and be a part of the amazing team that had traveled from Ireland. The new guys who had never been at a World Games before were shocked and over the moon to be at a World Games for the 1st time in their lives. We were then taken around to our right and got seated on some stone benches that the Greeks built so many years ago. The stadium was like a big horseshoe and we could see all other nations from where we were sitting. Some of our coaches were trying to get a Mexican wave going. We tried about 7 times, just us and 3 other nations, but it was too hard to get everyone to do it. When the final nations came in, it was coming up to at least 11pm and it was going to be one late night for sure.
Then there were a few guest speakers, including that woman from Desperate Housewives, Vanessa Williams who looked wonderful up on stage. There were so many things happening that night at the Opening Ceremony but the most amazing thing of all was the lights with so many different colours from blue, red, green, and white - it was like being at home on Christmas Day and was wonderful to see. They also did this big boat thing and there were 100s of people out on stage being the sea and people flying through the air. Then Stevie Wonder came on stage and sang for us! It was truly amazing to see him sing and he got all the people to sing along with one of his songs.
I was looking forward to seeing the Flame of Hope being lit and it started with these guys who came out holding wee small flame torches that looked amazing when the whole stadium went black for a few minutes. Then all I could see was a Greek athlete running up the steps and around to his left where he passed the torch onto the next athlete, and then onward to the next one. Finally it came onto the stage that we had walked in on and another Greek athlete ran down through the middle of the stage and came to a stop about 15 yards or less from where we were sitting. All I could see was the athlete bringing the torch down onto this white line, and from there it shot right up the line and with a bang, the flames started to come out of the big torch that was on top of the stadium. For me it was totally amazing to be there with Team Ireland and my friends and the rest of the world. There were a few fireworks and that was it. The Opening of the 2011 World Summer Games in Athens had been a great evening that I will never forget.