Opening Ceremonies!!!

Opening Ceremonies Jun 25, 2011 Athens Greece

After our dinner at the local restaurant, we took a double decker bus to the staging area for Opening Ceremonies. As we were waiting to walk to the staging area, we watched as the Greek SWAT team walked by. Greece has made us feel very safe and we have never felt uncomfortable this whole time. Our staging area was right in front of a beautiful building. We then realized we were the first to go! We were leading the whole country parade of athletes! It was overwhelming and so cool. We all had to wear the same uniform. After waiting about 15 minutes in the staging area, we got the word it was time to start lining up! We followed our leader to the front of the line directly in front of the stadium. The stadium was built for the first modern Olympic games in Athens in 1896 and is beautiful! It was such an honor to just sit in there, let alone be a part of such a historic moment! While we were waiting to actually walk, we saw Yao Ming, Apollo Anton Ohno and the Guardians of the Greek buildings. The Guardians guard the Acropolis and other important buildings in Greece and stand completely still for their 3- hour shift. Our excitement was growing and we started a wave through the teams! It was finally time to go and a woman in traditional Greek dress held our sign and led us to this incredible world stage! It was amazing! We all agree it is the coolest things we have ever done! Our arms hurt from waving by the end of the walkway because it stretched the length of the stadium. We felt emotional, excited, overwhelmed and excited as we walked.

We then found our seats for this incredible Ceremony. The parade of athletes was incredible and it was amazing to watch everyone that is part of the GYAS cheer for each other’s countries. From where we were sitting, the Acropolis was just visible and looked incredible lit up at night. The USA team was dressed in red shirts and awesome red and white shorts and it was a HUGE delegation. We all had a huge sense of pride watching those athletes walk in. Jill Biden accompanied the US team. The final delegation was of course the home delegation, Greece! They looked amazing and they were another huge delegation. The MC’s were Vanessa Williams (singer, actress and more importantly an SOI Board member) and a star here in Greece. We wanted to tell you how the order of events went so enjoy….

·      Parade of Athletes

·      Greek Flag presentation

·      Zhing Ziyi- Global SO Ambassador gave a speech

·      Performance by Greek Dancers called the Calling

·      Maria Menenous- introduced 12 Global Messengers from around the world who shared their personal victories- VERY powerful because it just wasn’t SO victories it was life victories

·      Remembering Eunice Kennedy Shriver with a Tribute video—an honor to remember this incredible visionary who will never be forgotten nor will her vision die

·      Greek President and Tim Shriver spoke to us—highlight was when Tim asked all of us to join the “Dignity Revolution” again and then asked the Greek president if Eunice could be an honorary Greek Goddess!

·      An AMAZING speech and performance by Stevie Wonder- Stevie used the theme of the games “Ime Mesa” as the theme of his speech. Ime Mesa means “I’m in” We hope you are all in too!!

·      A performance by Greek dancers to the Odyssey story

·      Presentation of the Special Olympics flag-Michelle Kwan was a carrier

·      A Chariot flew over the stadium to bring the torch carrier in—AMAZING and beautiful

·      A bunch of torch carriers lined the walkway as the torch was run around the stadium and then the carrier lit a rope and it went all the way to light the torch

·      A beautiful duet

·      Fireworks

It was an amazing ceremony and it was truly an honor to be a part of it! We then went to catch the bus…it was around 1am at this time. By the time we got on the bus and back to the hotel, it was 3:40am! We had to have breakfast and be ready to leave the hotel by 10am.  We didn’t get much sleep but it was all SOOOOOO worth it!! Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading…we know it was long!!!

This post went on our Project Unify Blog. Enjoy!!

Our perspectives-

Kim- (Coach Perspective)

As a coach and chaperone for the Global Youth Summit, participating in the Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 World Games was one of the best nights of my life. Being able to walk with Jordan and Alli and the rest of the GYAS participants for the first time in GYAS was overwhelming and emotional. I could only think of how far Special Olympics has come since I started volunteering and how much these GYAS participants and athletes deserved this. Being able to see Special Olympics on a global level has been a lifelong dream and the Opening Ceremonies did not let me down. As a coach, I could not have been more proud to see all of the athletes walking in. As a chaperone for GYAS, I was so excited to be an observer of this amazing youth movement and felt the weight of what these youth are about to accomplish. I found myself feeling proud and emotional while watching these ceremonies with the Acropolis glowing in the background of this historic moment for me, the GYAS and Special Olympics.

Alli- (Peer perspective)

Words cannot describe how amazing walking into the opening ceremonies was. You know how in the movies, sports players walk onto the field and they look around at everyone and all of the flashing lights in awe? This was just like that. It was so surreal. Watching every country walk onto the stage made me realize why we are here and how much of an impact the Global Youth has the potential to make. We are going to get more supporters, programs and are going to help motivate these hard working athletes even more. The Global Messengers were such a huge inspiration to me. As they spoke about their greatest accomplishment, ranging from getting married to winning a medal and dedicating it to their best friend, I was moved by how much these people could accomplish. Their inspiration motivates me to work even more when I get back, so that every person with a disability has the opportunity to live up to their full potential. I know these athletes will be able to do whatever they want on and off the playing field. Participating in the opening ceremonies is something I will never forget.

Jordan (Athlete perspective)

I have been competing in Special Olympics for many years in three different sports. I have been in many high adrenaline situations but last night, I had the biggest non-competitive adrenaline rush. Imagine leading your team out of the locker room and onto the field in the Super Bowl. That was what it was like leading off the introductions to the 2011 Special Olympics World Games Opening Ceremonies. That night included lots of excitement with a bunch of Greek singing and dancing, an amazing performance by Stevie Wonder, and being less that a football length away from NBA superstar Yao Ming, here representing the athletes of his native country China. However, out of all of those, the best part of the night was hearing from twelve Global Messengers from all parts of the world. They talked about what their greatest victory has been. I learned that winning a gold medal is not the only victory in Special Olympics. Some of the answers included getting married, going to school and getting a good education, having a successful job and many others. Although some of them did not speak English, I could still understand that they worked hard and truly deserved whatever it was. As for myself, my biggest victory (other than winning four championships in basketball) is being part of one of the biggest youth movements in the world.