Olympic Games ceremony a standard 18-event program was established. In order to open a Games in ancient Greece the organizers would hold an Inauguration Festival. This was followed by a ceremony in which athletes took an oath of sportsmanship. The first competition, an artistic competition of trumpeters and heralds, concluded the opening festivities. The Olympic opening ceremonies represent the official commencement of an Olympic Games. In recent Olympics, athletic competition began prior to the opening ceremonies. For example, the football competitions for both men and women at the 2008 Summer Olympics began two days prior to the opening ceremonies. The 2014 Winter Olympics
2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony that Paralympic athletes would also be "smashing ceilings" throughout the Games. Writing in the Independent Jerome Taylor notes that the ceremony was more structured and the music more classical than the Olympic equivalent "but it was still infused with simmering political radicalism and social commentary." Taylor also states that the Ceremony was a celebration of humankind overcoming the impossible. While Charles Perrin in the Daily Express states that after the Olympics the opening ceremony of the Paralympics "won the hearts and minds of the public with a truly memorable show." Perrin adds that "there was a palpable sense of awe