Olympic Games ceremony

The Olympic Games ceremonies are events held at the Olympic Games since their beginning in the ancient Olympics, including the opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Their purpose is to introduce and conclude the competition, award the successful competitors, and often to celebrate the culture and history of the hosting country. The ceremonies are integral to the Games and symbolize the international cooperation fostered in the Olympic sporting events.

The ancient Olympics, held in Greece from c. 776 BCE to c. 393 CE, provide the first examples of Olympic ceremonies. The victory celebration, elements of which persist in the modern-day medal and closing ceremonies, often involved elaborate feasts, drinking, singing, and the recitation of poetry. The more wealthy the victor, the more extravagant the celebration. The victors were presented with an olive wreath or crown, harvested from a special tree in Olympia by a boy specially selected for this purpose, using a golden sickle. The festival would conclude with the victors making solemn vows and performing ritual sacrifices to the various gods to whom they were beholden.

There is evidence of dramatic changes in the format of the ancient Games over the nearly 12 centuries that they were celebrated. By roughly the 77th Olympiad, a standard 18-event programme was eventually established. In order to open the Games in ancient Greece, the organizers would hold an Inauguration Festival, followed by a ceremony in which the athletes took an oath of sportsmanship. The first competition, an artistic contest of trumpeters and heralds, concluded the opening festivities.

Some elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the ancient Games from which the modern Olympics draw their ancestry; an example of this is the prominence of Greece in both the opening and closing ceremonies. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the medal winners received a crown of olive branches—a direct reference to the ancient Games where the victor's prize was an olive wreath. The various elements of the ceremonies are mandated by the Olympic Charter and cannot be changed. The host nation is required to seek the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for proposed ceremony elements, including the artistic portions of the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Olympic ceremonies have evolved over the centuries. The ancient Games incorporated ceremonies to mark the beginning and ending of every sporting event. There are similarities and differences between the ancient Olympic ceremonies and their modern counterparts. While the presentation of the Games has evolved with improvements in technology and the desire of the host nations to showcase their own artistic expression, the basic events of each ceremony have remained unchanged. The presentation of the opening and closing ceremonies continues to increase in scope, scale and expense, with each successive celebration of the Games, but they are still steeped in tradition.

While the Olympic Mass has inaugurated the Olympic Truce since 1896 to include the religious dimension of the Olympic Games, the Olympic opening ceremony represents the official commencement of an Olympic Games and the end of the current Olympic cycle. Due to the tight schedule of the Games, it is usual for some of the sporting events to start two or three days before the opening ceremony. For example, at the 2008 Summer Olympics, the football competitions for both men and women began two days prior to the opening ceremony.

This has also been the case in the Winter Olympics, where the ice hockey preliminary round has sometimes begun on the eve of the opening ceremony.

As mandated by the Olympic Charter, various elements frame the opening ceremony of a celebration of the Olympic Games. Most of these rituals were established at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.