2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony Bowl Halftime Show. But the negative reaction was lukewarm at best since the Greeks presented the float as part of an exhibit. 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
LGBT athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games LGBT athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes have competed in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, either openly, or having come out some time afterward. Relatively few LGBT athletes have competed openly during the Olympics. Out of the 104 openly gay and lesbian participants in the Summer Olympics as of 2012, 53% have won a medal. Cyd Zeigler, Jr., founder of the LGBT athletics website "Outsports", reasoned that this could be the result of the relieved focus and lack of "burden" an athlete would have after coming out, that "high-level athletes" are more