The Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 Special Olympics

The evening of the Opening Ceremonies were finally here. Please forgive the length of this post...its long but I couldn't cut any of it out :)

The longest day of the whole trip: 20 hours from start to finish!

We were all up and out of our hotel by 08:45 for our Final Leg Torch Run and then to dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies later that night.

We all mustered to formally receive our Flame of Hope back from the Honorary Presidential Guard. From there we began probably the best and longest run yet (approx 9 kilometers) All 150 of us ran through the streets of Athens. Each team rotated with our Athletes to the front with the torch.

We stopped at several venues along the way, which included; The U.S. Embassy, Police Headquarters and then a ceremony in front of the Mayor's office, with greetings by him and other dignitaries. From there we continued to our final destination, the entrance of Zappeion, where the cauldron would be lit.
****Remember the Zappeion was where we all first started the Final Leg Torch Run back on June 9th

Our Final Leg coordinator, Mike Team spoke to us and reminded us how important it was for each of us to share our experiences and take the Flame of Hope message home. Each of our Special Olympics Athletes was encouraged to speak briefly about how the experience of being part of the Final Leg Team affected them. As you can imagine they were all very emotional and truly thankful for the opportunity. It was a very moving experience and many of us, yes even grown men were in tears when we heard what they had to say... I can't say it enough - to so many athletes and their parents we are the heros to bring them hope and opportunity!

After our run, We had a quick dress rehearsal for our role at the historic Panathenaic Stadium, the original stadium for the 1896 Olympic Games!!
I think most of us were in awe of just being here, the stadium was a work of art, the authentic white marble is quite something...however later that night most of us were cursing the marble, as we were required to sit on it for several hours. Once rehearsal was done, we had about 3 hours of free time before we had to muster up for our event.

Many of us brought our police dress uniforms, which was a challenge in itself. We all scrambled for irons and tried to make light of the fact that we would be seated for many hours in the heat and had to look as sharp as we could.

The big event: The Opening Ceremony. Wow I am not sure how I can write about this!

The following will be from my perspective, but I strongly encourage everyone to google the Special Olympics Games Greece and there are short youtube clips that will capture some of what I was part of, it was absolutely amazing, yes it was very long, but still amazing for most of us.

6:30 pm muster time for us to load up on the buses. As we all gathered in the lobby of our hotel, many of us had a different look now without the running gear on and sweat on our body's. Our two Greek Police Women looked fabulous in their uniforms, their dress uniform was quite sheik, as they were in skirts and high heels, with short high cropped hats. Although as much as I complimented them, they complimented me in my uniform. Unfortunately not everyone brought a uniform, so we probably looked a little mismatched, too bad because in our running gear we definitely looked unified.

As we, all 150 of us, entered the stadium, the atmosphere was certainly more alive than it had been during the rehearsal, as many family, volunteers and friends were already either seated or walking about. 8:00 pm was the scheduled start time, but we were cautiously optimistic, as most other events we had gone to had not been on time.

We received lots of cheers, as we walked into our seating area. I looked into the stands for Canadian flags and saw a few. Of course there were so many different countries, with groups waving their flags. As we were seated I kept wondering how I would find Stacey's mom, Beryl Kohler.

Well, within half an hour, she found me, I guess our section kind of stood out.
It was great to see her and confirm that I had seen Stacey a couple times. Beryl was so excited, as I was, to finally connect. She expressed how excited Stacey was that I was here in Greece to see her.

It seemed like an eternity waiting for the entertainment to begin. Our biggest challenge was that we had to remain seated for several hours until it was our turn to go on stage. Although the sun had gone down it was still quite warm, probably at least 25 - 28 degrees.

And yes the ceremonies started late, but once they did it was non-stop entertainment, until we hit the stage around 00:30 hrs. There were so many dignitaries, including the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, numerous international political figures, celebrities, international sports icons and finally the Shriver/Kennedy family. As many of them walked by our group, they waved and made sure they acknowledged us. Of course the Shriver family were gathered to also remember their mother Eunice Shriver, who had founded Special Olympics in 1968. A special video tribute of her was played.

Dr. Timothy Shriver once again didn't disappoint us, he spoke and what was really neat, is he stayed on stage when the music started and began dancing with some of the Special Olympic Athletes.

One of his quotes; "You, the athletes do not compete with anyone but yourselves. Impossible is a state of mind, for everything is possible. Improve a little everyday and the impossible becomes the possible."

We also watched as each country , (185 in total with over 7000 athletes) was introduced, the uniforms, the colours and the number of athletes was quite incredible. As you can imagine that introduction of all these countries took forever!!

Two well known international sports celebrities were also in attendance; ice skater, Michelle Kwan and basketball star, Yao Ming.

Another significant part of the ceremonies, was the introduction of the International Global Ambassadors. As Special Olympic Athletes, they are picked for their ability to convey their message. Of course in the group of approximately 10 Special Olympics Athletes, was Matthew Williams from Vancouver B.C., and He did awesome!

The glamorous Vanessa Williams hit the stage and not only spoke but also belted out a few songs. Then soon after, Stevie Wonder was introduced and he continued with the momentum. Then all of a sudden Vanessa came back on stage and they joined together to sing, But prior to that Stevie Wonder spoke, and of all the people who had given speeches, we all knew he wasn't reading any que cards.

His quote; "Our dreams are only limited by our visions, let us all be Olympic Champions of love and respect."

Then he and Vanessa sang........
"That's what friends are for"!
It was great the stadium was electric with lights, etc....

Of course before the show ended, the Greek Mythology, history and culture was conveyed with the story of Ulysses, sailors on a ship who overcome harsh adventures.

Finally it was our turn, we knew our role and when queued all began to walk in twos onto the long stage. After the Flame of Hope was delivered to the cauldron, we quickly walked off. We queued up outside and watched fireworks. Then with a blink of an eye we were back on stage for the finale.

Then as we stood in our spots each country descended upon us, athletes slapping our hands and hugging us, something very overwhelming. I think we must have been on the stage for about an hour, the long train of athletes just didn't seem to end.

And the encore: one final spectacular array of fireworks to end a beautiful evening of excitement.

I think it was almost 01:00 am before the show was over, although we were all tired I kept thinking about the athletes, some of them, Stacey included had to qualify early the next morning.