Sydney 2000 Paralympic Ceremonies

[4gamesandcounting]

I watched the ceremonies in Beijing and Athens (both of which I thought did a great job, particularly that Athens tree!), but don't have any memory of the para ceremonies in Sydney. Were they in the main stadium? Well attended? What were the artistic sections like? Pictures? Lets discuss these little talked about ceremonies!

[Sir Rols]

Here's something I found on You Tube. Enjoy!

I watched, but can't remember much. It was raining, though, which wasn't great for the big paintings that the kids were doing in the stadium. And I remember Brian Brown narrated it. Not much else that sticks in mind for me.

[mattygs]

Well, the ceremonies were based on the concept of a rock opera, so the music was kinda hokey and inspirational in a jesus christ superstar sense. They also had their own little person character, she was born with a hole in her heart I believe, so the story revolved around her doing the para norm of fighting the ods ra di ra.

To be fair, the ceremony also was a precurser to the thematics of Salt Lake 2002, the Sydney Paralympics commonly used the tagline *the fire within* - it was even one of the songs used in the ceremony.

The main centrepiece of the stadium was a bunch of sort of pingpong tables arranged all over the field to form pixels, they were painted throughout the ceremony by the *pixelkids* to form various images as the ceremony went on.

The rest of the activity happened in the gaps between the pixels and on the two semi circles at the end of the green inner field.

The cauldron was lit with a relay style flame. Being lit on the central stage amongst the pixels, the flame was fueld and went mega in the direction of the main cauldron, lighting a serious of relay cauldrons which did the same thing, eventually getting to our main cauldron.

The closing ceremony from memory wasn't too much, I remember it started with one of the athletes that became quite famous, he walked around on his hands. Umm, they also had a run through time from the sydney bid, through to the Olympics, and then to the Paralympics - it kind of formed a big chased around the stadium, which included the roos on the bike from handover aswell as the kelly horse from the Sydney Opening.

The Athens handover was just a choir performance, all be it a good one.

The cauldron was extinguished to a Moby track (can't remember name from top of my head), where a series of laser lights appeared as waves to kind of douse out the flame.

I guess the big finale was the seekers coming on performing *the Carnival is Over*.

[Scotguy]

What were the Atlanta Paralympic ceremonies like?

[4gamesandcounting]

Thanks guys - interesting. While para opening are often quite beautiful and well thought out it seems the closings are sometimes a bit of a let down?

[Scotguy]

[4gamesandcounting]

Very similar torch to the Olympics.

[Scotguy]

The 2000 Paralympic torch

[Scotguy]

Some Opening Ceremony pics

[baron-pierreIV]

What were the Atlanta Paralympic ceremonies like?

That was before anyone was heavily interested in them. But I believe Christopher Reeve (newly paralyzed then) was the headliner of the Atlanta '96 Opening.

[Sir Rols]

That was before anyone was heavily interested in them.

Is it really any different now? Worthy as they are, nto most they're still an afterthought after the main course.

[baron-pierreIV]

Is it really any different now? Worthy as they are, nto most they're still an afterthought after the main course.

Well, at least here on GB, we try to make sure that the O's and the P's don't copy each other...at least Ceremonies-wise.

[mattygs]

I think the Sydney handover at the Atlanta Paralympics was based around some kind of big box opening up and forming a Sydney skyline of sorts.

[Scotguy]

Sydney 2000 Paralympics Closing ceremony

[mattygs]

Here's the quick summary i found on the special event magazine website.

[quoteA Ceremony in three acts

Dividing the ceremony into three distinct segments worked well.

Following the national anthem sung by Jeff St John, the show launched into…

Act One – the rock opera “The Fire Within”

Bryan Brown narrated the story and from the opening anthem “The Challenge” penned by David Mason-Cox and sung by Jeff St John, through the link of Melissa Ippolito, (a singer who had open-heart surgery at seven and turned 15 on Tuesday) who played a girl seeking certain answers, through to the call to the athletes to enter the stadium via “Reach Out” sung by Graeme Connors, this segment flowed well.

And the appearance of the only international performer, Professor Stephen Hawking, who offered an answer via video: "In our hearts, in our minds, in our spirit. The fire is within" was inspired and inspiring.

Act Two – the arrival of the athletes

Then, following this relatively brief build-up, the athletes were given their rightful place as the centre of attention by being brought onto the arena.

The various bands that accompanied the parade of athletes reflected not only the diversity of the nations competing, but also the diversity of our multi-cultural society, as these bands are all Australian based.

Act Three – Party Time

Then the party section – a great line-up of Australian talent and the wonderful imagery of the inflated creatures as they made their way around the stadium.

It was so long ago that until a few days I completely forgot how their *theme* was really pretty much the same as Salt Lake's. Most certainly Salt Lake did execute it in what is probably a far better way, as you would hope considering it was an Olympics, but still.

[Olympian2004]

Regarding Atlanta's Paralympic ceremonies, I only remember that Liza Minnelli performed at either the opening or the closing ceremony. They must have broadcast at least excerpts of those ceremonies on German TV back then.

Regarding Sydney: The only thing I remember of the Paralympic closing ceremony is that look back on Sydney's journey from the early bid stage to the winning announcement 1993 in Monaco and then on to the actual Olympic and Paralympic Games. I found that a very good idea and I would have wished that every following Olympic and Paralympic host city had done that. It makes so much sense to do such a look back at the very night when all the preparations and celebrations come to an end.

I have slightly more memories of the Paralympic opening ceremony -- but nothing new to add here. I remember the "pixels", the vaguely the parade of nations and how Louise Sauvage lit the center-stage cauldron and how the flame travelled to the main cauldron.

But it's true: Paralympic ceremonies are (just like the Paralympics themselves) only an afterthought. Sadly. That's why I hope that in the future, they will be staged before the Olympic Games as an "appetizer", so to speak.

I just found a short text about the Atlanta Paralympic opening:

A four-hour ceremony opened proceedings with the Paralympic mascot, a bald eagle named Blaze, gracefully swooping into the Olympic Stadium. The atmosphere was electric as Christopher Reeves, former cinema Superman and the master of ceremonies stressed how each competitor represented the "triumph of the human spirit". Teams from every nation paraded around the stadium to the cheers of the crowd. Carly Simon, Liza Minnelli and Aretha Franklin contributed songs to add the final touch. The 1996 Paralympic Games were underway.

http://www.itftennis.com/paralympics/history/tennis/atlanta.asp

Christopher Reeves as master of ceremonies? Now that I read that I seem to vaguely remember that as well.

[baron-pierreIV]

Hmmmmm. /\ /\ Didn't know they used an "eagle" for that ceremony. However, Blaze was supposed to be a phoenix--not an eagle. I was there at the launch of Blaze as the '96 Paralympics mascot, when they handed out the initial numbered T-shirts.

Strangely, no clips of that Opening show up on YouTube.

[4gamesandcounting]

Hmmmmm. /\ /\ Didn't know they used an "eagle" for that ceremony. However, Blaze was supposed to be a phoenix--not an eagle. I was there at the launch of Blaze as the '96 Paralympics mascot, when they handed out the initial numbered T-shirts.

Strangely, no clips of that Opening show up on YouTube.

Baron didn't you work at the Atlanta Olympic ceremonies? Was that team not involved at all with the paras?

[baron-pierreIV]

1. Baron didn't you work at the Atlanta Olympic ceremonies?

2. Was that team not involved at all with the paras?

1. Yes.

2. I was not aware that Mischer's Co. was also doing the Para's--and I also wasn't aware of how much resources, time and energy the regular O's was sharing with the Para's at the time. Maybe once or twice, it might've have been mentioned that help was also needed for the Para's--but even that I don't remember all that well; oh, but on the application forms, it was asked whether one also wanted to work on the Para's or not. All I remember was that the Para Org Committee had separate offices (much, much smaller) from ACOG.

[4gamesandcounting]

So was it two seperate organisations in Atlanta then? I guess we've got used to the last few games being more and more integrated in their approach.

[baron-pierreIV]

So was it two seperate organisations in Atlanta then? I guess we've got used to the last few games being more and more integrated in their approach.

Yeah, it was only starting in Nagano that the 2 Org Committees worked on an even more integrated basis. Remember the runner who brought in the torch into the Nagano stadium was a land-mine victim, minus one arm and one leg.

[Ikarus360]

Actually there are some pics of the ceremonies of Atlanta paralympics in youtube. This ones is from the closing ceremony (the screen shows excerpts of the opening, in fact this was the last video shown on the stadium before being reconfigured onto the Turner Field). You can see both Christopher Reeves and Blaze as well.

[baron-pierreIV]

/\ Whew!! That is so touching. I rarely get emotional over film clips, much less anything with Patti LaBelle and her screaming/screeching and with a traditional Rodgers & Hammerstein standard no less. But I almost choked up on the power of the song and the visuals. I think the song is even more potent than Celine's "The Power of the Dream" of the regular O's.

Thanks for posting that clip, Jose. How do you find them?

[Olympian2004]

Myles, that's not Patti LaBelle, but Aretha Franklin.

[baron-pierreIV]

Myles, that's not Patti LaBelle, but Aretha Franklin.

See? I can't tell one from the other. Thanks for the correction, F.

I kinda had this nagging feeling that an outrageous hat or hairdo was missing. Well, I am thankful then that it was Aretha rather than Patti.