Opening Ceremony for Winter Olympics 2018

Friday, 2.9.18

PyeongChang, South Korea was the location for the Winter Olympics 2018. It is the 23rd Olympic Winter Game, and the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit at night.

The hosts for this Olympic Opening Ceremony were Mike Tirico and Katie Couric. A couple of American athletes were interviewed. Natalie Morales interviewed Shawn White, Apollo Ohno interviewed Lindsey Vonn, and Katie Couric interviewed Mikaela Shiffren and her mother. Apollo also interviewed Maame Biney.

Then, the overview of the lighted city at night was displayed, where you can see the pentagon-shaped stadium, colorful twinkling lights, and suddenly the world, WELCOME, lights up in the dark night. Multicolored fireworks go off around the stadium.

On a circular and ancient platform or stage, a story is told about the ancient city of man and nature living in harmony together with a performance of a large white tiger costume, which is similar to the Chinese lion dance. Five fearless Korean kids approach the tiger, and other large animals enter the circular stage to join in the peace and harmony celebration. The round center stage now has multicolored and different designs, kind of like the new age symbolism and scientific astronomy symbolism. The colors looked pretty together, but it probably symbolizes something else. One of the animals on stage is the Rising Phoenix, which is a symbol for hope, as well as a symbol for the Illuminati to do their own agenda.

The President of South Korea and President of the International Olympic Committee are introduced to the audience. Performers with drums enter the stage to create geometric and floral design, maybe to represent science, technology, computers, math, nature, and the matrix.

The South Korea flag is carried by eight athletes on the stage. The national anthem for the Republic of Korea is performed by a children’s choir as the flag is raised on its pole.

Parade of Nations starts in alphabetical order, after Greece, and it ends with Korea. The Korean alphabet is used. I decide to list all the countries, one by one, because it is interesting who shows up during each Olympic Games. After Greece, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Timor-Leste, Latvia, Lebanon, Romania, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Montenegro, Moldova, Malta, Mongolia, USA, Bermuda, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Brazil, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Singapore, Armenia, Argentina, Iceland, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Andorra, Albania, Eritrea, Estonia, Ecuador, Great Britain, Australia, Austria, Olympic Athletes from Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Iran, Italy, Zionist Israel, India, Japan, Jamaica, Georgia, China, Czech Republic, Chile, Kazakhstan, Canada, Kenya, Kosovo, Colombia, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Chinese Taipei (which includes Taiwan), Thailand, Turkey, Togo, Tonga, Pakistan, Portugal, Poland, Puerto Rico, France, Macedonia, Finland, Philippines, Hungary, Hong Kong, and Korea. (North and South Korea enter as one, under one unified flag of the Republic of Korea. I hope this is a positive sign).

Light star shapes float around all over the stadium and stage in mostly a light blue color. The stage is lighted up in multicolored lights as well as colorful fireworks go off.

A 77-year-old man, dressed in traditional Korean costume, sings a traditional and national song, which is stated to be sad about the changes and history of Korea. The circular stage looks like water with greenery, and a long wooden raft, carrying the same five Korean children, floats and glides of this surface. This scene symbolizes hope for Korea and its future.

Fireworks go off against the dark nighttime sky. The kids on the raft imagine their future, dreaming big for endless possibilities. Computerized robots with bionic limbs and one bionic eye as well as other technological creates are depicted for the future. Computer science, math, and other sciences are the hint of what is in store for everyone’s future. Cylindrical lights movie upwards in a tubular fashion, like it is moving toward a UFO overhead because it looks high-tech and futuristic. Fireworks go off again.

The President of Korea makes his speech for peace. The President of International Olympic Committee also makes his speech. Colorful fireworks and lights go off in the sky. The five Korean kids walk on the stage, each carrying a lighted candle inside a torch-like cup. Four Korean adult singers perform on stage, singing the John Lennon song, Imagine. Everyone in the audience is holding up their lighted candle, as they move sideways with the song and music. In the dark stadium, it looks like twinkling stars against the dark nighttime sky. Athletes walk on stage with their candle, and they form into a dove shape, lighting up the round center stage with a lighted dove of peace.

Outside on the ski slopes, during the nighttime, shooting star drones form different shapes in the sky, such as snowboarder and the five Olympic rings. Skiers glide down the slopes with a snowmobile to guide them down smoothly. The smooth white slope looks pretty and fun to ski that I miss skiing down the slopes. For a couple of minutes, I get some flashbacks from the 80s when I used to ski in Heavenly Mountains and Reno Nevada.

The South Korean athletes carry the Olympic flag on the stage, walking toward the poles. The Olympic anthem is played while the Olympic flag is raised on its pole. A Korean woman sings the anthem. She is wearing a pastel and gold traditional Korean costume.

A female Korean athlete carries a modern-looking lighted torch, and she walks with it until she passes it to another female Korean athlete. She passes the torch to a male Korean athlete. He trots with the lighted torch until he passes it to two female Korean athletes. They hold he lighted torch together, and walk up a lighted staircase pathway toward a modern sculpture of a cauldron, where Yuna Kim skates on a small skating rink on top. Yuna Kim takes the lighted torch and lights the modern Olympic cauldron, which looks like a futuristic industrial structure. Red fireworks go off against the dark nighttime sky. There were also some green specks, but I mostly saw red.

South Korean male dancers performed on the stage. Colorful fireworks and lights go off on the round stage. More dancers performed, but these dancers were dressed as goblins, which apparently mean good luck in Korea. They performed with drumsticks that are lit with fire on its end as well as masks. The ceremony ends with more colorful fireworks, against the dark sky and lighted city filled with multicolored lights.

(I added some of my snapshots from a local event).