Sunday, August 29, 2004 2:34:51 PM
Games closing with grand ceremony
Greece earned its own olive wreath by
silencing pessimists, now it's party time
Ben Curtis / AP
Fireworks fly over the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony on Aug. 13.
ATHENS, Greece - The Greeks certainly know how to party and they want to prove it to the world on Sunday night.
After a triumphant Olympics that have confounded the pessimists, the spiritual homeland of the Games is determined to go out in style.
“They have had a great Games and they have a lot to celebrate,” said Lois Jacobs, producer of Sunday’s closing ceremony.
Greece will be bidding an ebullient farewell to billions of television viewers around the world, while for the 10,500 athletes from a record 202 countries it is the perfect opportunity to let their hair down at last.
“Greece is going to go out with one big party,” Jacobs promised. “And it is going to be a full moon. We could not have planned it better. The broadcast will last a couple of hours but we will be partying on afterwards.”
All those disastrous pre-Games headlines about construction chaos and security concerns will be forgotten. The smallest country to stage a Summer Olympics since Finland in the 1950s, Greece is ready to award itself some well earned olive wreaths.
“It has been a good Games,” Jacobs said. “Of course there have been doping stories but there are at every Games. The Greeks have been very hospitable and what people feared has not transpired.”
International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies, whose performances over the last two weeks have proved she is not given to hyperbole, said: “The Games are a great success. The host country has welcomed us so warmly we look forward to these two days and the Games closing ceremony.”
The stadium is being turned into a giant wheatfield. About 250,000 balloons will cascade down from a night sky exploding with fireworks.
With the Olympic torch now passing to Beijing for the 2008 Games, famed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has promised to dazzle the Athens crowd with a “fusion of Chinese heritage and youth culture.”
He was not giving anything away in advance but said the costumes of the 270 Chinese dancers and acrobats were created by the costume designer for the worldwide hit martial arts film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Among the performers will be 28 young monks from the Shaolin temple in central China, the country’s most famous training center for kung fu.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Greece earned its own olive wreath by
silencing pessimists, now it's party time
Ben Curtis / AP
Fireworks fly over the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony on Aug. 13.
ATHENS, Greece - The Greeks certainly know how to party and they want to prove it to the world on Sunday night.
After a triumphant Olympics that have confounded the pessimists, the spiritual homeland of the Games is determined to go out in style.
“They have had a great Games and they have a lot to celebrate,” said Lois Jacobs, producer of Sunday’s closing ceremony.
Greece will be bidding an ebullient farewell to billions of television viewers around the world, while for the 10,500 athletes from a record 202 countries it is the perfect opportunity to let their hair down at last.
“Greece is going to go out with one big party,” Jacobs promised. “And it is going to be a full moon. We could not have planned it better. The broadcast will last a couple of hours but we will be partying on afterwards.”
All those disastrous pre-Games headlines about construction chaos and security concerns will be forgotten. The smallest country to stage a Summer Olympics since Finland in the 1950s, Greece is ready to award itself some well earned olive wreaths.
“It has been a good Games,” Jacobs said. “Of course there have been doping stories but there are at every Games. The Greeks have been very hospitable and what people feared has not transpired.”
International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies, whose performances over the last two weeks have proved she is not given to hyperbole, said: “The Games are a great success. The host country has welcomed us so warmly we look forward to these two days and the Games closing ceremony.”
The stadium is being turned into a giant wheatfield. About 250,000 balloons will cascade down from a night sky exploding with fireworks.
With the Olympic torch now passing to Beijing for the 2008 Games, famed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has promised to dazzle the Athens crowd with a “fusion of Chinese heritage and youth culture.”
He was not giving anything away in advance but said the costumes of the 270 Chinese dancers and acrobats were created by the costume designer for the worldwide hit martial arts film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Among the performers will be 28 young monks from the Shaolin temple in central China, the country’s most famous training center for kung fu.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
