My Opening Ceremony Olympic Moment

I had a wonderful Olympic Moment during the preparation for the Opening  Ceremony.

My role, along with two others from the Games Maker’s NGR team, was to guide, chaperone. cajole, shepherd whatever (!)  the Team NGR  Athletes and Officials who were taking part in the Opening Ceremony parade of Athletes from the Athletes' Village to the Olympic Stadium.

Keeping the Team on track on its 1.4Km  walk to the Stadium. The walk for the 204 teams was meticulously  planned for the first team – GRE – to arrive at 22:10hrs the start of the Athlete's Parade around the Stadium followed by the other 203.

That walk was a lotta fun!

The Athletes and Officials had to walk by a  Guard of Honour of  about 2,500: 2,000 school children and 500 teachers from local schools lined 3 deep pressed hard against railings.  They  treated the Athletes and Officials  like pop stars walking the red carpet . Much screaming shouting, country name calling and chanting - Nigeria!, Nigeria! Nigeria! -  generally a deafening , sometimes ear splitting, cacophony of fans lauding their heroes and idols.

The Team (and all the other Teams’ Athletes and Officials) loved it, stopping to having photos taken with their adoring fans! While we – Games Makers - tried to keep them moving to meet the Parade’s  strict schedule – dynamic tension – great fun.

The real stars of Team Nigeria's Parade were its basketball players who thru their huge height,  graceful, elegant walking coupled with their  distinctive  Nigerian Dress : bright white brocade with dark green ornately patterned piping they looked brilliant – in fact - absolutely fantastic. Unmissable!

Graciously every few yards , the players  literally stooped to be photographed with the screaming kids aka delirious fans en route. Huge, happy smiles all around.

There was one outstanding moment on the walk that stood out for me – an Olympic moment.
The Team was walking past a lovely smiling young girl in a wheel chair which was covered in the flags of the countries that had gone before including GER, ESP, HKG flags.

 (Apologies for the poor quality of my iPad taken photo but I did want to catch the moment )

The look on her face as the NGR basketball players dropped in on  her,  descending down to her wheelchair level to give her their NGR  flag - I will never forget that look of amazement & delight – she was positively  beaming!

A lovely, lovely moment!