London 2012 blog

Last week I was lucky to be in Beijing as to mark one year to go to Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony.

This was the first time that this event had taken place in the host city as it is usually marked with a small ceremony at the IOC in Lausanne. On this occasion the event was held in Tian’anmen Square in downtown Beijing and was attended by the President of the IOC, IOC Members, Beijing and BOCOG dignitaries.

We arrived in Tian’anmen Square just before 7pm allowing us a brief moment to take in the impressive buildings that surround this famous square. Against the beautiful backdrop of the Gates to the Forbidden City the performances began. We were treated to 2 hours of singing, dancing, pop stars, brightly coloured costumes, jazzy piano concerto, drums, dragons, flag parades, and even Jackie Chan!!! There were speeches and invitation presentation ceremonies where the official invitations to attend the Beijing Games were given to the NOC Presidents of Greece, Canada, Great Britain and Russia representing the countries of the future Games.

We counted down the seconds in unison and watched the countdown clock tick over to 365 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds…

The atmosphere was truly amazing as the 10,000 strong crowd sang, cheered, danced, waved glittery stars, balloons and banners that stated “WE ARE READY”.



Following all of this was a very very impressive fireworks display… if this was anything to go by the actual Opening Ceremony on 8th August 2008 will be nothing short of spectacular!!