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
1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony Canadian singer Celine Dion and American singer Gladys Knight. The ceremony attendance was 85,600. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide. The ceremony began with a countdown at the screen coming from 60 to 1. Starting at 22, footage from previous games appeared with Atlanta at the end complete with an image of fireworks. The segment began by airing a flashback from the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in August 1992 which showed International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch inviting the athletes to compete in Atlanta in 1996. Spirits then rose from the northwest corner of