2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on August 13, 2004 at the Olympic Stadium in Maroussi, Greece, a suburb of Athens. 72,000 spectators attended the event, with approximately 15,000 athletes from 202 countries participating in the ceremony as well. An estimated 4.5 billion people watched it worldwide on television, though many of them watched it on a tape delay due to large time differences between Greece and other nations. It marked the first-ever international broadcast of high definition television, undertaken by NBC and the Japanese television station NHK.

Torch relay & lighting

The Opening Ceremony culminated in the end of the torch relay, a tradition begun when Berlin hosted the games in 1936.

Related Topics:
Berlin - 1936

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Torch bearer Nikos Galis, considered to be the greatest Greek basketball player of all time, entered the stadium first. The torch was passed on, in sequential order, to Greek football legend Mimis Domazos, 1992 Hurdles champion Voula Patoulidou, 1996 Olympic weightlifting champion Kakhi Kakhiashvili, and 1996 Olympic gymnastics champion Ioannis Melissanidis.

Related Topics:
Nikos Galis - Basketball - Football - Mimis Domazos - 1992 Hurdles - Voula Patoulidou - 1996 Olympic weightlifting - Kakhi Kakhiashvili - 1996 Olympic gymnastics - Ioannis Melissanidis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The torch was finally passed to the 1996 Olympic sailing champion Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, who lit a giant cigar-shaped tapered column resembling a torch — not, as usual, a cauldron — to burn during the duration of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Related Topics:
1996 Olympic sailing - Nikolaos Kaklamanakis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~