Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics

Tonight is the Opening Ceremonies for the Rio Olympics. Hearing that this opening event cost less than 1/10th the cost of the London Opening Ceremonies, I'm expecting it to be a full-on Carnival and not much else.

So, while thinking about the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, it made me think of some pretty cool things in the ceremonies of years' past. 


Here are a few things that still stand out in my mind...

Whales coming through the floor in Vancouver.

The "Queen" skydiving in London.







But, my favorite of all was Beijing. 

Hands down.  
They won.

Here is my evidence to support this claim: 1. The drummers.





2. The "moveable type" -- and the costumes! Imagine the work that went into these... 




This does not even count for the "footsteps of history" that "walked" to the stadium with fireworks of feet, the fiber-optic Olympic rings, the singing, dancing on the history scroll of China, etc...  

Worth re-watching the entire thing.


Of course, China hosted the Youth Olympics, too, and they didn't fail to impress (you may wish to forward to 2:30):




In the comments section below, what highlights do you recall from past Olympic Opening Ceremonies? 

Enjoy watching the Rio Olympics!