As Paris prepares for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games today we take a look back at four memorable Olympics of the past.
1964: Japan’s rebirth
The Tokyo Olympics marked Japan’s great return to the world stage after its defeat and destruction two decades earlier in World War II.
In a poignant symbolic nod to its pacifist credo, the last carrier of the Olympic torch was Yoshinori Sakai, an athlete born on August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
2000: Aboriginal hero shimmers in Sydney
At the millennium Games in Sydney, Aboriginal star Cathy Freeman symbolised the desire to reconcile the people of Australia when she ascended to the cauldron in a cascading waterfall to light the flame.
Ten days later she won the 400m final before an ecstatic crowd in what was to be her last major race.
2004: Greek cultural display in Athens
The opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens featured countless themes from ancient and modern Greek culture including traditional music, mythology-inspired costumes and other such motifs.
It marked the first time in more than a century that the Olympic Games returned to Greece — as the first modern games had taken place there in 1896.
2012: Queen Elizabeth’s London skyfall
The late Queen Elizabeth II played a starring role at the London Olympics, appearing alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig in a film shown at the opening ceremony in which she appeared to skydive into the stadium from a helicopter.
The show included a tribute to the National Health Service, a major source of national pride, with children wearing pyjamas bouncing on 320 giant hospital beds.
Source: The Australian.
