2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony the Opening Ceremonies, for example in the last Olympics before that, in Salt Lake City, where banners of the previous 18 Winter Olympics entered Rice-Eccles Stadium at the beginning of the ceremony. This would also be seen in Vancouver during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics and on the Televised version of the Olympic Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The first speech came from Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, the chief organizer of the Athens 2004 Olympics and the first female chief organizer of an Olympic games. She told the athletes: "Welcome home!" and "Greece is standing before
2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony athletes and raising of the host nation's flag and the Olympic flag. Apart from the choreography, the fireworks, and the pageantry, the ceremony was a reminder of peace as a goal of these Games. It climaxed with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. The theme of the program was "Passion Lives Here," and the 4000m² stage was shaped like an anatomic heart with a mosh pit in the centre where the athletes congregated for the second half of the ceremonies. The athletes were thus put in the centre of action and in front of the stage, emphasizing that the heart