July 13-19, 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Opening Ceremonies: A Blog from Natalie Grainger

Natalie Grainger, seen here with Team USA at the Opening Ceremonies, sends some thoughts from Rio.

Blog Two
The Opening Ceremony – Energy!

Friday 13th could be seen as a bit of an unlucky day to many, but this day for us here in Brazil, held an amazing experience for us. The opening ceremony for the XV Pan American Games was scheduled for this evening, and the word on the street was that it was going to be an awesome show – and we weren’t disappointed!

All the US athletes met downstairs in our building at 3.50pm. The girls all dressed in their khaki golf shorts and red dri-fit shirts and the boys also in their khaki shorts and red polo shirts – there was a real buzz in the air, we were a team of 300 USA players and looking forward to walking out in front of one of the biggest assembled crowds in the world.

The bus trip down to the stadium was quite something in itself. We were all shepherded onto the buses, were reminded of what it was to represent your country and that we would be under the spotlight…and then we were off with a full police escort all the way to the stadium – super cool. (Security has been a major priority, but we are starting to get used to the police in body armor carrying sub-machine guns!) On arriving at the stadium we were greeted by thousands of locals, some in fancy dress others just hanging around to catch a glimpse of the athletes and the show. The US team were mostly greeted with smiles and thumbs up gestures, parents lifted their children to get a better view in the bus and pictures were taken from both sides of the glass - but there was a crowd on the last corner we turned before entering the gates that rushed at the buses and gave us all the finger and booed…it was certainly something none of us had experienced before.

As we stepped off the bus we were guided to the main staging area, the indoor stadium where the volleyball is being played, which is to one side of the main outdoor stadium. We were totally surprised and thrilled by the thousands of volunteers that were involved in the opening ceremony, as they lined both sides of the path, dressed in their vibrant, flamboyant, often outrageous costumes, shouting, applauding and “high fiving” all of us on our way through. (My personal favorites were the grass and the corn.) They made us feel so special and it set the tone for the whole evening.

I would normally skip the whole staging area part and move right onto the ceremony, but I wanted to give Claudia, our very own special volunteer assigned to the US Team a mention. Who with broken English and a lot of hand gesticulating managed to get us all seated in the right place, saw that we received water while we waited, and got our US flag bearer, Danielle Scott-Arruda, a three-time Olympian and four-time Pan American Games volleyball team member to the front of the line. Her most important role however was saving our necks when we were leaving the stadium and all the US athletes took off down the same route as the rest of the public, which lead to the streets…she freaked out, stopped us all and redirected us back to the buses, on the way giving Chris Walker her contact details! What a woman!

The opening ceremony took place in the Maracana stadium that was home to the 1956 Soccer World Cup that Brazil lost to Uruguay in the finals. It is not hard to imagine what the atmosphere must have been like back then, the stadium is a solid circle of concrete that concentrates the energy into the arena and the Brazilians are the most vocal, colorful and fun people that love big occasions and an excuse to break out the celebrations. As we were announced into the stadium the whole place erupted, I have goose bumps now thinking about it – cameras were flashing, drums and other hand instruments were being banged, shook and clanged and we were all lifted up, shouting, waving and smiling at everyone and everything. It was like being in the middle of an enormous carnival and we were the main attraction. We did a full circle of the stadium, the noise deafening and the TV cameras rolling, before settling into our seats to watch the countries that came after us. And then came Brazil. It’s hard to describe the emotion, energy and noise in the atmosphere when the home team danced into the stadium to fast paced Brazilian music, wearing their yellow and green fedoras. In true Brazilian style they swayed, jumped and kept beat with the music all the way round the stadium and the crowd went with them.

When all the athletes were finally seated there was a show of gigantic proportions put on in front of us. The lights were turned from bright white, to yellow, green, purple then blue. The theme of the opening ceremony was energy and the elements and the dancers and performers portrayed the wonderful natural beauty of Brazil incredibly. Massive animal floats of a crocodile, snake, bulls, a robot and a huge chair with a professional singer sitting like a miniature cartoon character on it rolled out in front of us. Guys on stilts controlling paper birds above them that were flying over the volunteers dressed as water that covered the stadium floor with the grass and corn. Rollerbladers swirled and clowns played, it was a mass of activity and color – and the fireworks were just awesome!

Finally we came to the oaths taken on behalf of the athletes and officials and the Olympic and Pan American Games flags were raised. The Brazilians honored their past medaling athletes with the ‘lighting of the flame’ part of the ceremony. The final athlete, Joaquim Cruz, one of the famous middle distance runners of the 80’s, walked up to a stage with an enormous steel ball with artistic patterns on it. The ball was slightly raised and surrounded by water, and as he put his flame to the fuel it became a great ball of fire. We were seated right by this ball of fire and the heat that came off it was immense. This was the final scene from the ceremony that we took away with us, and as we filed out the stadium and back to the athlete’s village our senses had plenty to digest. -Natalie