Olympics: Games start today

IOC president Jacques Rogge
| credits: bbc.co.uk

The eyes of the world will be on London for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games today with Nigeria taking part in the event.

The ceremony will provide an opportunity for the world to view the culture of the host city and the UK and that of all participating countries including Nigeria.

Certain elements must feature in every Olympic opening ceremony, as outlined in the International Olympic Committee charter and today in London, there is expectation that the hosts will go beyond what the world witnessed in Beijing.

For the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen will be greeted by Jacques Rogge, President of IOC.

A procession of the participating teams will follow which will be done in alphabetical order, after which speeches will be delivered. The session ends with the invitation of the Queen to officially declare the Games open.

A total of 15,000 people will perform in the London 2012 opening ceremony, which will be watched by an estimated audience of four billion.

The Team Nigeria ended its preparation for the ceremony on Thursday with the position of flag bearer changing hands. Instead of Usman Maryam, Boltic Sinivie – a 96kg freestyle wrestler-will carry Nigerian flag later today.

The change came after a meeting held Thursday afternoon at the Games Village. Deputy Chef de Mission for the country, Al-Hassan Yakmut, said the change became necessary after Maryam’s coach suggested that she was better off not playing that role in view of her early competition on Saturday following the opening event .

Yakmut said, “The opening ceremony is going to stretch into the early morning of Saturday and Maryam will be fighting soon after the ceremony. It is for strategic reasons. We don’t want to wear her out in the ceremonies.

“Boltic is not new to events like this. He has been around and has won several medals for Nigeria at international events’’ he said.

The change is limited to that of the flag bearer for the march past. Team Captain remains the same as the Beijing Olympics bronze medallist, Chika Chukwumerije.