2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games was held on August 13, 2004 at the Olympic Stadium in Maroussi, Greece, a suburb of Athens. 72,000 spectators attended the event, with approximately 15,000 athletes from 202 countries participating in the ceremony as well. It marked the first-ever international broadcast of high definition television, undertaken by the U.S. broadcaster NBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. The opening ceremony began with a twenty-eight second countdown—one second per Olympics held since Athens last hosted the first modern games—paced by the sounds of an amplified heartbeat played by
2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony respect for their colleague, Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in a luge accident earlier that day. The team left an empty space in the processional and left the stadium immediately following the procession. They had indicated they would not participate in the opening ceremony or withdraw completely, but decided against doing so. The team wore black scarves and armbands to honor Kumaritashvili while a black ribbon was affixed to the team's flag. Teams from some countries, including Australia, Azerbaijan also wore black armbands in respect of Kumaritashvili. China, which hosted the last Olympics in Beijing, also got a standing ovation due