Vancouver welcomes the world: opening ceremonies tonight
Posted Feb 12, 2010 05:56:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
More than six years of planning, construction and waiting come to an end tonight.
An Olympic opening ceremony is a showcase for the host country, and it comes with a lot of pressure. But most of what we’ll get to see in Vancouver will be a surprise. Organizers are keeping details under wrap, with the executive producer saying only that the crew has been ambitious and did not go with a ‘traditional’ ceremony.
Being the final Olympic torchbearer at the opening ceremony is a huge honour, but organizers are keeping secret who will get the prestigious duty. Names of people like Wayne Gretzky and Terry Fox’s mother are being tossed around, but officials refuse to let out a peep of who it will be.
We do know Canada’s flagbearer at the ceremonies will be speedskater Clara Hughes.
“I get really emotional whenever I watch the opening ceremonies,” Hughes confessed. “I can’t stop crying, it just really resonates inside of me.”
“I’m a little afraid I’m going to be a blubbering mess when I walk in there,” she laughed.
While Olympic organizers have a couple secrets, there are a few butterflies, too.
“We have this kind of tension you feel in your stomach when you’re sitting in the change room before a big game,” John Furlong, the head of the Vancouver Games organizing committee, said. “You should have it, because it causes you to rise to the occasion.”
The biggest party this country has seen in quite some time will begin at 10 p.m. Atlantic. News95.7 will carry the opening ceremonies live.
