Friday night the 2012 Summer Olympics from London, England kicked off in an opening ceremonies presentation that displayed the history of Great Britain using a middle earth like setting.
The ceremonies certainly had its moments from the forging of the Olympic Rings and Mr. Bean playing the keyboard to the Queen jumping out of a helicopter and Paul McCartney capping the night off with “Hey Jude”. For the most part though the presentation seemed more like an over produced 4 and a half hour-long show on the BBC which is understandable considering the host country but it certainly didn’t live up to the 2008 standards in Beijing.
Here we have the “independent athletes” who either didn’t have countries to compete for or chose not to compete for their respective countries but still qualified for the games. This included marathoner Guor Marial, a refugee from the Sudanese civil war who’s been living in the U.S. since 2001. Sudan doesn’t have an Olympic Committee and he isn’t a citizen of the United States.
And finally we have the formation of the cauldron which was actually pretty awesome considering the somewhat disappointing show prior.
And finally Sir. Paul McCartney ends the night on a high note.
Ref: SportsGrid, YouTube
