Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony

[menegazfelipe]

That, right there, was the best part of the ceremony... The final moments of the "Imperial Ball" and entrance of the Red Train.

[StefanMUC]

Having just finished watching, I'm completely unimpressed by the whole thing. The flame was dull, Bach's rant was embarrassing, and the show elements left me cold. I did like the map projections during the athlete parade though.

[JMarkSnow2012]

As I did for London, here's the embryo of a Great Big Timeline (HOURS:MINUTES). This may be useful for anybody who's stuck with the NBC version of the OC, and wishes to find what has been missed out.

Any such unfortunates should bear in mind that it is, inevitably

FULL OF SPOILERS

00:00 Introduction film: the Cyrillic alphabet, with notable examples for each letter
00:04 Burst of fireworks and whispered countdown (seconds shown as lights in audience; each seat has a light in the back, and according to Alphacarter, each audience member was given an illuminating “medal” to wear).
As flute music plays, a young girl flies a kite
00:05 The girl follows the kite into the sky, and the moon appears while clouds are projected below
00:06 As a choir sings, islands are seen drifting across the stadium (neatly matched with the floor projection; this positional matching of live action and projection is a particular strength of the Sochi OC). An animatronic horse is seen grazing on one island
00:08 People in fur garments appear on the stadium floor, while five stars drift above
00:10 The stars elegantly expand to form five linked rings (or rather, sadly, four expand, while the fifth remains stubbornly star-shaped)
00:11 Entry of Vladimir Putin and Thomas Bach (Olympic gold medallist in fencing, 1976) announced
00:12 National Anthem played
00:15 Lines of performers in the arena light up to form the Russian flag; they move in synchronisation to make the flag flutter
00:16 Film of the lighting of the Olympic Flame at Olympia, and the first part of the Torch Relay
00:18 A world map is projected on the arena floor, and zooms in to Greece for the start of the Parade of Nations. The athletes enter up a ramp to the centre of the arena, as the map projection zooms in on their nation.
The music for the Parade is modern electronic dance music, similar to London 2012 but with the tempo slightly increased to 130 bpm.
Also as in 2012, the marshals who line the outer track have a set of “moves” which they perform to add fun to the parade.
00:27 Bosnia-Herzegovina
00:41 Latvia
00:45 Monaco
00:53 Serbia
01:02 Croatia
01:06 Jamaica (who get a bit of a cheer)
01:08 Russian Federation (who enter to huge cheers, and a mash-up backing of tATu's “Not Gonna Get Us” and Queen's “We Will Rock You”). As the Russian team is very large, the marshals crowd in around them to make sure they don't dawdle.
01:14 Announcement of the end of the Parade, with a short burst of fireworks both outside and inside the stadium
01:15 Presentation of the official mascots, as animatronic figures moving around the arena as if on skateboards
01:16 Film summarising the history of Sochi, from the arrival of ancient Greek mariners, through port development in the early modern era, the growth of the town from about 1900, to the 21st-century Fisht stadium.
01:20 Back in the stadium, giant illuminated animated horses fly in, as Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring” plays
01:21 Beneath the horses, the floor projection shows breaking ice
01:22 Dancers enter, followed by a gaggle of iconic, supersized Russian emblems, including onion domes
01:23 The kite girl reappears among the iconic objects (which also include teapots- Sochi was the only place in Russia where tea was grown)
01:25 To a folk melody, dancers and objects join in an intricate dance (including some pogoing)
01:27 New sequence: sea projected on floor, with a sailing ship (c1800) crossing it; in another neat example of live/projected synchronisation, sailors are seen on the ship's deck.
01:30 A map of land unrolls over the sea, and troops march over it to a city, in well-synchronised formation
01:31 As the troops parade in the city, cannons fire a salute
01:32 Young women from the city mingle with the troops
01:33 As pillars rise to denote the bounds of a magnificent ballroom, the soldiers and young women dance together
01:34 One girl dances ballet among the mass of dancers
01:35 The dancing girl and a soldier are shown flirting and falling in love (her father also appears)
01:37 Another soldier, in a dark uniform, dances before the dancing girl
01:38 More dancers in dark uniforms circle the four principals (dancing girl, father & two soldiers)
01:39 The mass of dancers join in, making complex patterns
01:41 The dancers exit, and a steam train flies in
01:42 More symbols of industrialisation (girders etc.) fly in, to dramatic music, and a new set of dancers, dressed in red, enter below. The lighting scheme turns red overall
01:43 Red dancers ride machines with large cogwheels; some dancers hold cogwheels aloft
01:46 The dancers exit and the sequence ends.
A few dancers remain, and bend down as an air-raid siren sounds
01:47 Sounds of engineering and construction are heard, as blueprints for a city are projected on the floor
01:48 Construction workers in hard hats enter; the floor projections become actual streets, but with scrolling news headlines (mostly in Russian) where the buildings would be.
All sorts of people walk through the streets and across the zebra-crossings, including some carrying products of the post-1945 technological revolution, such as rockets
01:50 Buildings in the form of tall banners rise between the streets, showing classic “Stalinist gothic” skyscrapers.
Giant heads, characteristic of Stalinist-era public sculpture, fly in above.
Cars appear on the roads.
Among the pedestrians appear a load of beatniks
01:51 The kite girl reappears
Motorcycles (with sidecars) cruise the streets
01:52 By now the soundtrack is a 1960s pop song.
Lots of weddings, followed by lots of prams
01:53 The kite girl flies away again with a red balloon, and hovers in the sky over a blue orb; end of sequence
01:55 Film of the remainder of the torch relay
01:56 Aerial shot of the Olympic Park, as the official speeches are announced
01:58 Speech by SOCOG president Dmitry Chernyshenko
02:02 Dmitry does not have a good French accent
02:03 Speech by Thomas Bach, IOC president and Olympic gold medallist in fencing, 1976 (yes, we know)
02:04 Bach's French accent is somewhat better
02:06 In English, Bach thanks the people of the Sochi area for their patience and understanding during the Olympic transformation
02:07 Bach thanks the volunteers
02:08 Bach addresses the athletes
02:09 Bach speaks out against all forms of discrimination; “Olympic sports unite the people”
02:10 Bach calls the Olympics “A sports festival embracing human diversity in great unity”
02:11 Bach advises politicians around the world not to use athletes for political purposes
02:12 Bach requests athletes to respect the rules and respect their fellow-athletes
02:12 Announcement of the opening of the Games by Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation
02:13 Putin declares the games open (in Russian). Brief burst of fireworks
02:14 The Doves of Peace: dancers wearing collars from which are suspended strings of LED lights (music: Tchaikovsky's “Swan Lake”
When the dancers pirouette, the LED strings rise with centripetal force; if the dancers move the collars quite quickly up and down, the LED strings make wave effects
02:17 Entry of the Olympic Flag (music seems to be adapted from Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture”), carried by eight notable Russians
02:21 The flag reaches the podium, and the spectators are requested to stand for the Olympic Anthem
02:22 As the flag is raised by the bearers (no military personnel involved), opera singer Anna Netrebko sings the Olympic Anthem in Russian, with a male choir providing the choruses
02:26 On behalf of the athletes, Ruslan Zakharov takes the Olympic Oath
02:27 On behalf of the judges, Vyacheslav Vedenin takes the Olympic Oath
02:28 On behalf of the coaches, Anastasia Popkova takes the Olympic Oath
02:29 Dancers in LED-illuminated costumes enter on in-line roller-skates, as LED constellations fly overhead
02:30 The skaters form curves and circles as an illuminated symbol of planet/satellites (and/or nucleus/electrons?) forms overhead
02:31 The constellations become 3D versions of Olympic sport pictograms
02:33 As the music incorporates elements from the evening's earlier themes, notably the Rite of Spring, the flying sport-constellations flash on and off in a frenzy
02:35 One constellation, an ice-hockey player, shoots a bolt of fire from its stick.
The arrival of the Olympic Flame is announced, and Maria Sharapova enters with it
02:36 Maria hands the Torch to pole-vault Gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva
Yelena passes it on to Greco_Roman wrestling Gold medalist Aleksandr Karelin
02:37 Aleksandr passes the Torch to rhythmic gymnastics Gold medalist Alina Kabayeva
She passes it on to figure skating Gold medalist Irina Rodnina
02:38 Irina passes the Torch to Gold medal winning ice hockey goaltender Vladislav Tretiak
02:39 Together, the last two torch bearers jog out through the scenery shed, flanked by cheering performers, towards the Cauldron
02:40 Vladislav lights a mini-Cauldron, which sets off a line of pyrotechnics across the tarmac and up the spine of the main Cauldron, lighting it
02:41 Fireworks outside and inside the stadium
02:42 The expansion of the five stars to form the Olympic Rings, as it should have happened, is projected on the stadium floor
02:43 The fireworks continue, with a background of ballet music
02:48 The fireworks, which have been seen almost entirely from viewpoints outside the stadium, end.
Returning within the stadium, the audience can be seen hurrying out, presumably hoping to get a glimpse of the outdoor fireworks

[gotosy]

Russian TV shows doctored video of Olympic rings

• 

  In a combo of frame grabs taken from Russian television, five snowflakes float together in Fisht Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. During the live ceremony, the fifth ring failed to fully open to create the Olympics rings. On Russian television, producers inserted footage from a dress rehearsal when all five rings joined together and erupted in pyrotechnics.(AP Photo)

• 

  One of the rings forming the Olympic Rings fails to open during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

• 

  One of the rings forming the Olympic Rings fails to open during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Smoke and mirrors? Russian state television aired footage Friday of five floating snowflakes turning into the Olympic rings and bursting into pyrotechnics at the Sochi Games opening ceremony. Problem is, that didn't happen.

The opening ceremony at the Winter Games hit a bump when only four of the five rings materialized in a wintry opening scene. The five were supposed to join together and erupt in fireworks. But one snowflake never expanded, and the pyrotechnics never went off.

But everything worked fine for viewers of the Rossiya 1, the Russian host broadcaster.

As the fifth ring got stuck, Rossiya cut away to rehearsal footage. All five rings came together, and the fireworks exploded on cue.

"It didn't show on television, thank God," Jean Claude-Killy, the French ski great who heads the IOC coordination commission for the Sochi Games, told The Associated Press.

Producers confirmed the switch, saying it was important to preserve the imagery of the Olympic symbols.

The unveiling of the rings is always one of the most iconic moments of an opening ceremony, and President Vladimir Putin has been determined to use the ceremony as an introduction of the new Russia to the world.

Konstantin Ernst, executive creative director of the opening ceremony, told reporters at a news conference that he called down to master control to tell them to go the practice footage when he realized what happened.

"This is an open secret," he said, referring to the use of the pre-recorded footage. The show's artistic director George Tsypin said the malfunction was caused by a bad command from a stage manager.

Ernst defended his decision, saying that the most important part was preserving the images and the Olympic tradition: "This is certainly bad, but it does not humiliate us."

NBC was to air the ceremony in the U.S. on tape delay later Friday.

Glitches are not uncommon at Olympic opening ceremonies.

There was a minor controversy over trickery involving the fireworks at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, after it was revealed that some of the display featured prerecorded footage.

Fireworks bursting into the shape of gigantic footprints were shown trudging above the Beijing skyline to the National Stadium near the start of the ceremony. Officials confirmed that some of the footage shown to TV viewers around the world and on giant screens inside the stadium featured a computer-generated, three-dimensional image.

In addition, a tiny, pigtailed 9-year-old girl in a red dress who sang "Ode to the Motherland" was lip-synching. The real voice belonged to a 7-year-old girl who was replaced because she was deemed not cute enough by a member of China's Politburo.

At the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Luciano Pavarotti's performance was prerecorded. The maestro who conducted the aria, Leone Magiera, said the bitter cold made a live performance impossible.

AP

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/russian-tv-shows-doctored-video-olympic-rings

[nzl]

It was funny that on the the video that showed all there buildings they showed nice glass pagodas or something covering the end of the stadium but we ended up with ugly barns at each end, for $50bn

[Ozkar]

I LOVE IT... !!!!! ATHENS 2004 STILLL MY* NUMBER 1........... SOCHI WAS VERY VERYY GOOD!!!!

[Athensfan]

I really liked the Sochi ceremony. It was theatrically engaging and accessible. Well paced and creatively staged.

For me, it did not rival Athens' artistry or Beijing's grandeur, but it was extremely entertaining and well-crafted.

[Citius Altius Fortius]

I really liked the whole show - it had its sublime moments - there was some funny moments

First I didn't like the outfit of the German team - but the jackets looked great yesterday!!!! Very colourful!!!

the shadow is a famous memorial of Peter the great in Sankt Petersburg

Edited February 8, 2014 by Citius Altius Fortius

[mattygs]

I didn't like it very much... It reminded me a lot of other ceremonies. The Soviet engines reminded Sydney's Tin Simphony, only a little bit more red. The little girl reminded me of Nikki Webster. The pillars were like a mixture of London's chimneys and Beijing's pillars. Too many little, but visible, flaws...

Oh, and I hate floor projections...

Thing is, it's getting to a point where there are very very few original ideas anymore. But that's ok.

When people claim a copy, it will only take one other person with a longer memory to trump that.

People will say they copied London's use of newspaper headlines on the field..... well Manchester did that in their Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 2002.

Little kid as a central figure, sure, but doesn't almost everyone do that now in some shape or form.

Use of flying, yeah, they did it in Manchester , Sydney..... but heliospheres were a big part of the Barcelona closing ceremony.

Everything is just a variation of ideas, it's not bad, it's just seems to be what happens.

[Mr Tickle]

I'd give it 7 out of 10. I was expecting to be blown away and there were amazing moments but the cauldron lighting I thought was dire. Why not light a firebird or something inside the stadium to fly out to light it. It looked like an abandoned car park. The best bit of the lighting was passing cast members and props that was great.

Best bit for me was the star constellations, loved that, so dramatic. Liked the dancing domes too that was fun and really liked the floor projections being interacted with the cast.

I did love the change of pace as the revolution happened, that looked and felt great, but I kept thinking, hold on I saw this 2 years ago, it felt really similar.

Felt really bad for the rings not working, thats the money shot, but just didn't happen.

I really felt it was such a slow start. It didn't get going for me til the Russians came in then the audience seemed to wake up, and the splitting the countries coming in was a great idea for keeping them moving.

I did feel a bit uncomfortable during the russian flag raising, just seemed a bit too in your face.

The woman singing during the Olympic flag raising was spot on though.

Really felt like the cauldron lighting was an after thought though, not impressed at all.

So for me it was ok, wasn't 4x Vancouver though or 2x London. Winter games wise I preferred Vancouver I think.

Thats my synopsis

[mattygs]

I did feel a bit uncomfortable during the russian flag raising, just seemed a bit too in your face.

This is unfortunate for countries like Russia, unfortunately they just appear too ott.

Australia can get away with having a gigantic bombastic arrangement of the national anthem (which was great, don't get me wrong), and a field surrounded by stockmen and women carrying Australian flags - but Russia can't.

We can have military presence from GB, Canada and the US in their respective ceremonies, but we look down on Russia when they do the same.

Canada can impart on the world lyrics from their own national anthem.... as the slogan for the Olympic Winter Games, but people critique Sochi for having a stage in the shape of the map of Russia.

I dunno, just the way it is I guess.

I don't think the Russian flag raising and national anthem was ever going to make many people feel comfortable, especially with a choir singing it.

But they're a proud country, and good on em for getting nice and patriotic.

Good critique of the ceremony.

I guess the USSR/Tin Symphony and Pandemonium are all from the same book, but it's a common chapter in the story of many nations, and in all 3 cases would have been hard to overlook.

[JMarkSnow2012]

The best thing I can say about this show was that they made good use of the airspace above. They didn't let it go to waste unlike a certain summer ceremony which built a $25 million lake but hardly used it. Was sorry though that it wasn't a heavy ice show.

But they did at least have some skaters, confirming our anticipation of inline rollerskates !

I didn't like it very much... It reminded me a lot of other ceremonies. The Soviet engines reminded Sydney's Tin Simphony, only a little bit more red. The little girl reminded me of Nikki Webster. The pillars were like a mixture of London's chimneys and Beijing's pillars. Too many little, but visible, flaws...

Oh, and I hate floor projections...

Looking over it again, I think the similarity to other ceremonies was deliberate (London 2012 did the same in a more joky sort of way- chimneys for Beijing pillars, mill-pond for Athens lake etc.). It's as if the Russians made a conscious effort to select interesting elements from recent ceremonies and do them better (including, for example, London-style dramatised stories, but with, as the Baron has indicated, better camerawork).

But I think we are mostly agreed that, right at the end, they made the wrong choice. They decided that the "triumphalist OTT" model for Cauldron lighting was the best, and went heavy on the star names & pyrotechnics. I hope Rio will be brave enough to try an improvement on 2012's unusual "spiritual beauty" approach.

[aughton]

I do enjoy a good opening ceremony - and that was pretty good.

As always, there are pluses and minuses.

Rings were a shame - but these things happen.

Cauldron lighting, run past the cast was a great moment, run through the deserted car park was very poor. Cauldron not being in the stadium - bad from the OC perspective, but nice that it forms a centrepiece of the olympic complex for those lucky enough to be in Sochi.

Great music and lighting/projections throughout - and Russia does have a truly glorious national anthem. Stadium itself fairly unremarkable.

Some great parts in the show - the train/revolution scene very impressive and the post-war/space age section a lot of fun. But ballet always leaves me cold and I've never like War & Peace, so that really didn't work for me - neither did the constellation section.

Overall a very solid effort - although personally I prefer the Sydney/London energy and humour vibe to the more classical Athens/Sochi approach. Russia is a vast, fascinating and culturally rich country - ceremony did a good job of representing this.

Finally on the BBC coverage - could have done without some of the political analysis and sniping, OC's are meant to be a party and a celebration.

[JMarkSnow2012]

Best bit for me was the star constellations, loved that, so dramatic. Liked the dancing domes too that was fun and really liked the floor projections being interacted with the cast.

Yes, I got my hoped-for quota of visual gags (quite a bit of fun in the late-Soviet-era section too) and I agree that the integration of projections, cast and moving props was spot-on.

[Sir Rols]

I do enjoy a good opening ceremony - and that was pretty good.

As always, there are pluses and minuses.

Rings were a shame - but these things happen.

Cauldron lighting, run past the cast was a great moment, run through the deserted car park was very poor. Cauldron not being in the stadium - bad from the OC perspective, but nice that it forms a centrepiece of the olympic complex for those lucky enough to be in Sochi.

Great music and lighting/projections throughout - and Russia does have a truly glorious national anthem. Stadium itself fairly unremarkable.

Some great parts in the show - the train/revolution scene very impressive and the post-war/space age section a lot of fun. But ballet always leaves me cold and I've never like War & Peace, so that really didn't work for me - neither did the constellation section.

Overall a very solid effort - although personally I prefer the Sydney/London energy and humour vibe to the more classical Athens/Sochi approach. Russia is a vast, fascinating and culturally rich country - ceremony did a good job of representing this.

You know - you've pretty well written my own review of it to a T. Every single point... well, apart from although I don't really like ballet either, I did enjoy the War and Piece and Swan Lake numbers. Loved the classical emphasis of the ceremony a lot, actually.

I find it hard to compare winter and summer ceremonies, and don't really like rating them anyway. I'd more say in terms of Winter OCs, in terms of favouritism and what I've enjoyed, it would be equal with, or just a shade above, Vancouver, but not quite hitting the high notes of Lillehammer.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Sir Rols

[JMarkSnow2012]

Overall a very solid effort - although personally I prefer the Sydney/London energy and humour vibe to the more classical Athens/Sochi approach.

I'd say Sochi was a compromise between the Athens and Sydney approaches- there was plenty of energy, even in the "classical" War and Peace segment, and quite a bit of lightheartedness. One surprise for me was that, although the cast was supposedly very small by OC standards (2,000 as opposed to over 10,000 for Sydney) there were very few moments when the number of human beings visible on stage seemed small- nearly always over a hundred, rather than the tiny numbers (2 lovers playing in the lake; 1 centaur etc.) shown during much of the Athens OC.

[kevzz]

I like to praise the team for it's brilliant cinematography. There's a lot of great, creative shots eg. the camera coming down the iron girder props in the Russian revolution scene, in-the-car shots. It's the next best use of camera angles after Athens.

Overall I am really pleased with this ceremony. There's a lot of creativity and artistry there and I love they make great use of Russian's classical music and ballet.

[Sir Rols]

I really liked the whole show - it had its sublime moments - there was some funny moments

Marts (or anyone else). I noticed during the live chat there was wide recognition here of the wacky dance they did during the Soviet segment - Trololol or something. The tune seemed vaguely familiar, but it's not something I know about. What is it? A Eurovision entry? Some 1960's Soviet-pop kitsch that leaked over the Iron Curtain?

[aughton]

I find it hard to compare winter and summer ceremonies, and don't really like rating them anyway. I'd more say in terms of Winter OCs, in terms of favouritism and what I've enjoyed, it would be equal with, or just a shade above, Vancouver, but not quite hitting the high notes of Lillehammer.

Thanks

And I agree with you on this as well. Rating/ranking ceremonies is very difficult - especially when trying to compare winter and summer olympics. But your list does make me realise just how high the standard is for ceremonies - makes criticising any of them to any great extent look a bit mean-spirited.

[aughton]

I'd say Sochi was a compromise between the Athens and Sydney approaches- there was plenty of energy, even in the "classical" War and Peace segment, and quite a bit of lightheartedness..

You may well be right here. I'm relying on fading memories and YouTube clips for trying to make comparisons with previous ceremonies - so it's more a question of the overall impression.

There was certainly a lot of energy and fun in the final post-war section, but for me I think that it's how the ceremony starts that will leave the lasting impression of the tone of the event.

I really don't want to sound negative about Sochi - it was excellent in many ways.

[dancingbrogues]

I liked the use of the visual space, where vast 'floats' were drawn across the air, reminding me of the May Day Parades in the Soviet era. Wonderful to showcase the depth of the repertoire in Russian classical music - particularly good in the 'elegant' sections - like the voyna-i-mir Ballroom and the constellations. Less sure about the kitsch elements. I didn't mind the simplicity of the lighting of the flame, but yep, surrounded by a sea of people would have made a more lasting impression than 2 Olympian Putinistas navigating an empty plaza. .

My favourite bit was the oath - we had the athlete who sped through the thing, then the official who ponderously incanted his memorisation, and then the coach who managed to croak it out through the botox - most human thing of the night.

[gotosy]

Sochi 2014: Olympic chief defends Irina Rodnina's ceremony role

The head of Sochi 2014 has defended the controversial selection of Irina Rodnina to light the Winter Olympic flame in Friday's opening ceremony.

Former figure skater Rodnina tweeted an allegedly racist photograph of US President Barack Obama last year.

But Sochi 2014 chief executive Dmitry Chernyshenko said it was not considered when choosing the Russian MP.

"Any political talks or discussions are not appropriate for the Olympic Games," said Chernyshenko.

"Irina Rodnina is one of the most respected Olympic athletes in the world and I want to stress the Olympics is not about politics."

Rodnina, who won gold at the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics, attracted criticism after tweeting a doctored picture of President and Mrs Obama looking at someone holding a banana.

The 65-year-old politician removed the image from her Twitter account, but refused to apologise for using the picture after being questioned by police.

The US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, responded at the time by writing "outrageous behaviour, which only brings shame to her parliament and country" on his Twitter account.

But Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said: "It's clearly not the IOC that chooses torch bearers but, as Dmitry said, she was chosen for what she's done in sport and she's a triple gold medallist in skating.

"She's done a great deal of work in sport and that's what she was chosen for, but it was a decision that Sochi took, as they did all with of the torch bearers."

Chernyshenko also revealed that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, was "satisfied" overall with Friday night's ceremony, despite a technical hitch at one stage of the lavish production.

Five giant snowflakes descended into the stadium and were then meant to change and form the rings of the Olympic symbol, but the last one failed to open.

"After the closing of the ceremony the President expressed his gratitude toward the team, to the deputy PM Kozak and all the creative team. He was satisfied with the result," said Chernyshenko.

He was also questioned over ticket sales and, while refusing to reveal specific figures, Chernyshenko expressed his confidence that people would visit the Games.

However, with a number of venues appearing to have empty seats prior to the start of events, he urged Russian fans to be like overseas visitors and take their seats in advance of the start.

"It's true that Russians have a special habit, not like the foreigners who come in advance," he said.

"This is a lesson learned - we're trying to inspire our local fans to come longer and in advance to fill the stadia prior to the beginning of the events."

Organisers revealed that 44,431 people attended the Olympic park on Friday with the IOC happy with attendance numbers.

"From the IOC point of view, venues look pretty full and the percentages of tickets sold are pretty high and there are a lot of full venues," said Adams.

"Sometimes you do have open areas of snow, because that's what they're doing, but as far I know there have been very good sales and very good attendances so far."

BBC

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

Boy I am really getting sick of hearing that the Olympics is not about politics.

[StefanMUC]

Boy I am really getting sick of hearing that the Olympics is not about politics.

Especially coming from people who use the Olympics for their own political agenda...hypocrites all over.

[LOUIS]

I was pleasantly surprised by Sochi OC. Ok, the concept wasn't the most original or groundbreaking, but from a purely artistic point of view it was almost in the same class as Athens and Beijing. It didn't feel like a propaganda spectacle (as many had predicted). The whole show was cohesive and not once i was bored.

8.5/10