Ikarus360

Closing Ceremony of the 2021 SEA Games. 2:03:38 begins the handover to Cambodia (next host in 2023)

Vangelis has left us, as he passed away at the age of 79. Besides his many soundtracks and contribution to music, he is also remembered for his work in the 1997 IAAF Opening Ceremonies, and the handover to Athens 2004 in Sydney. R.I.P.

As much as I support the cause in Ukraine, this will not do well for a contest which has been accused for years of being politicized. UK and Spain deserved to win it, specially because this was a once in a lifetime chance after many dissapointments for both of them (Spain hosted it in 1969). Also, I doubt this war will be over by 2023. How is Ukraine exactly going to host anything when the entire country is in shambles?

Not a big fan of the huge use of VR in this ceremony. Hard to tell what's really happening in the stadium or isn't at times. Then again I know these SEA Games budget were severely affected due to the pandemic so I guess they tried to go for some alternate routes.

My apologies, its not revoking but postponement. What the hell, FISU?

As expected, Yekaterinburg lost the hosting rights for the 2023 Universiade for the reasons we all know. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1122506/world-university-games-yekaterinburg However, its kinda strange FISU took longer than expected to revoke the hosting rights. I assumed they did so months ago. Not like they can celebrate it anyway given the Chengdu Universiade which was supossed to be held in 2021 (then to 2022) was delayed yet again to 2023 now that China lost control of the pandemic. Seems FISU got hit by the pandemic even worse than the IOC.

This could had been the Winter Olympics but they were lucky to avoid the storm. Unfortunately, Hangzhou and Chengdu weren't as lucky. Asian Games in China postponed due to pandemic https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/05/9731d8facfcf-urgent-asian-games-in-china-postponed-due-to-pandemic-source.html Summer World University Games in Chengdu to take place in 2023 https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1122800/chengdu-2023-world-university-games

VTV (Vietnam main TV channel) posted the whole cultural segment of the 2003 SEA Games Opening in their channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8BN7WU3PI

Closing ceremony of the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi (Vietnam). Next week Vietnam hosts the SEA Games again, an edition which, much like others, has been delayed/received budget cuts due to this tiresome pandemic. For what I read it seems they are taking the Beijing route and will implement usage of LED in the floor.

Albertville 1992 Closing as seen in TF1. I know there is a better quality version at the IOC website but its still interesting to see how it was seen back in the day through television

If you've been watching the Olympics for a good while you will understand it has always been about politics, you like it or not.

Please spare us the racist card. Russia has been a blight for Sports reputation for a lot of years because of organized doping/cheating. What they've done to Ukraine this year is an invasion, no matter all the excuses, childish accusations of nazism and historic facts they want to use as coping to justify it. While I understand there are sport players who don't agree with what that their government is doing, right now, giving Russia even the smallest window of representation could be taken as a form of recognition/approval of them as a country who deserves to be respected. And if their sportmen/sportwomen only become more hostile and pro-invasion because of this, then it means they are showing their true colors. And yeah. Before you also play the Whataboutist card, its possible other countries did it too. The difference is Russian government wasn't even smart enough to make it subtle. Isn't that right, Sochi?

Amateur recording of Kuala Lumpur 98 ceremonies, mostly focusing on the human screen (one of the most elusive ceremonies out there, so far no one has posted the full thing yet at Youtube except for the parade of nation)

Nagano stage was partially based after a Sumo ring, to keep with the use of traditional elements at their opening. The pillars weren't there originally, as they were raised at the start of the show (the Onbashira tradition is actually much more dangerous outside of what they did in the stadium, since they often pull the logs through crazy places such as rivers and steep slopes) The circle at the center could also be raised thanks to hydraulics. It was used a couple of times during both opening and closing ceremonies.

The only good thing of this ceremony (Tokyo's) is that it made me value the Nagano ceremonies more. Don't get me wrong, they were still very simplistic, but after many years i've started to appreciate its peacefulness and how it focused heavily in the culture of the japanese countryside. The fireworks at the closing ceremony (made by traditional fireworks makers which are still spectacular today)were for me the top moment of the closing. I wish we could live in an alternate world where Dentsu and Covid didn't fucked up the Tokyo ceremonies. At least, if Sapporo wins (which for the moment seems to be the most plausible scenario) they will have a second chance to get it right.