The Games of the XXVIIIth Olympiad are opened!

A theatrical mixture of ancient and modern Greece launched the Athens Olympics on Friday, lifting spirits in the Games' birthplace after the host nation was rocked by a drugs drama involving its two top sprinters.
A worldwide television audience saw a grand opening ceremony lift the curtain on the biggest sports show on earth, as patrolling helicopters and troops underlined the Games are guarded by the largest security operation in peacetime Europe.
The Greek gymnasts Dimosthenis Tambakos, and Ioannis Melissanidis were integrated into the ceremony, the Italian Juri Chechi carried the flag of his country...

Ioc- Präsident Jaques Rogge

International Olympic Committee President (IOC) Jacques Rogge and Greek leaders have said everything humanly possible has been done to ensure the safety and success of the Olympics - the first summer Games since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Rogge had earlier urged the athletes to set an example for world peace -- and forswear drugs - before Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos declared the 28th Olympiad open

Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of the ATHOC

Tens of thousands packed the futuristic new Olympic Stadium, centerpiece of a two-week festival of sport that was under threat from chaotic construction delays until the last minute.
After three hours of pageantry, former windsurfing gold medallist Nikos Kaklamanakis lit the Olympic flame.
He was by all accounts a late substitute for sprinter Costis Kenteris, the Olympic 200 meters champion who had plunged home fans into despair by missing an eve-of-Games drugs test and then crashing his motorbike, leaving his participation in doubt.
'The country that gave birth to athleticism welcomes you,' declared the announcer as the parade of athletes ended.

Russian and American astronauts sent video greetings from their space station far above the earth. A heartbeat of drums had counted down to the opening moment and, amid torchlight and fireworks, a boy aboard a paper boat drifted across the flooded arena waving a Greek flag.

>> The artistic gymnastics team qualification will start on Saturday.