The 2016 Olympic Games officially kicked off tonight with the opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium.

The games are being held in South America for the first time and the action began two days ago with women’s soccer.

I enjoy watching the Olympics and I’m always curious to see what the producers come up with for the opening ceremony. They always put together a visually stunning show that pays tribute to the host country’s heritage and to the games history. The opening ceremony is a big deal, with an estimated THREE BILLION people watching and it took FIVE years to produce. This year’s ceremony features 300 dancers, 5,000 volunteers, and 12,000 costumes.

As for special guests, we saw supermodel Gisele Bundchen (who is Brazilian) owning it as she did her catwalk down the entire length of the stadium. Dame Judi Dench was also featured in the opening.

There will be 10,500 athletes at the games (that’s 207 teams) competing and for the first time, Kosovo and South Sudan will take part in the games. There’s also a Refugee Olympic Team! These athletes will compete until the Olympic flag and the team has 10 members in total—five from South Sudan, two from Syria, two from DR Congo, and one from Ethiopia.

Check out Team Canada as they made their entrance into the stadium. Team Canada has 314 athletes and the Canadian flag was carried by gymnast Rosie MacLennan!

More than 500,000 tourists are expected to come to the Games but organizers say that more than 1 million out of the 7.5 million tickets remain unsold. There could be any number of issues affecting ticket sales—Brazil is in a deep recession and political crisis and already some athletes have been robbed while one New Zealand jiu-jitsu athlete claiming he was kidnapped. There is the Zika virus outbreak that has made headlines for birth defects and because of that, the World Health Organization has recommended pregnant women (or women trying to get pregnant) to avoid the games. The fear of the virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has caused some athletes to drop out.

Which athletes are getting buzzed about?

There’s Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, who is aiming for an unprecedented triple triple (that’s him winning the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay titles)

There is American swimmer Michael Phelps who is the most decorated Olympian of all time (he has 18 gold medals). He is looking to add more to his collection.

Serena Williams will attempt to win her fifth Olympic medal for tennis

Team USA’s basketball team is aiming for their third consecutive gold.

Other sports to look out for are golf and rugby as both sports make their return to the games.

Haha, BBC nails it!

Okay so I know I have talked about the games and what to look out for but we can’t deny these games don’t have the same air of excitement as past games have had, especially here in Canada. Most of my sports-loving friends have said they would watch on TV but asked if they would have loved to go to the games in person, they all say no. I did some searching online and found out my friends aren’t the only Canadians feeling this way. An Angus Reid survey reports only 13% of Canadians say they’re “very interested” in the following the games which is a huge decline compared to the last two games in London and Beijing. In the same survey, 55% of Canadians said they would tell a relative who qualified for the games to stay home and avoid the health risks. Then there is the 71% of Canadians who think the IOC is a corrupt organization and 83% of Canadians also said that the ongoing scandals involving the IOC and doping has “eroded the Games’ original purpose of celebrating athletes”.

Eek!

Are you going to be watching any part of the games? If so, which sports?

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