Let me borrow the ad slogan from Li Ning’s apparel and shoes company: anything is possible. His performance in sky demonstrated this idea very well. So as the opening ceremony, I think it blew away a lot of people’s expectations. So congrats to Mr. Zhang Yimou and each of 15,000 performers, and their families, for the hard work and dedication. For Li Ning, this is also a personal redemption: after winning 3 gold medals in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Li Ning failed badly in 1988 Soul Olympics, and was blamed and ridicued when he came back from Soul. He kept his mouth shut, built China’s own sports brand (Li Ning) in last 20 years. Now he got this honor.
(Li Ning run in the sky to light the Olympics cauldron, source: CCTV)
A minor surprise: the order of players entering the arena. Initially I felt not used to the Chinese character order of countries, instead of the commonly used English alphebetical order.
NBC opening ceremony video playback backfires
It seems there are lot of anger of the web against NBC’s decision not carrying the opening ceremony live. The decision was pure a business one, because the advertisers wanted to have a good ratings (more viewers). I don’t want to put too much blame on them, but I agree in this Internet age, video taping for the rating is an out dated idea. BTW, I intensionally stayed away from the internet coverage before watching the playback last night.
Some games I want to watch
Tomorrow I will try to catch the China US mens basket ball game. I expect China to lose, but I hope they will put up a fight.
Liu Xiang, the world famous 110 m hurdler, was not seen in the opening ceremony. I think that’s a smart move, he is trying to get rid of the huge pressure and expectation (from Chinese fans, to his sponsor Coca Cola). I hope he will steal a win later.