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
2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony heaven, earth, and mankind. No Olympic or Paralympic events will be held at the stadium, which will only be used for the opening and closing ceremonies. The venue will be torn down afterwards. The broadcast of the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games was available in more than 200 countries around the world. The ceremony's message centered on peace, passion, harmony, and convergence. Five children from rural Gangwon province led the ceremony, which included one Inmyeonjo (a mythical creature with a body of a bird and a head of a human, a creature that only appears when the