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 | | | You are in: Special Events: 2001: World Athletics: Our man at Edmonton |
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| |  Saturday, 4 August, 2001, 08:29 GMT 09:29 UK Edmonton's opening oddity Edmonton proves that you can't go wrong with fireworks By BBC Sport Online's Tom Fordyce in Edmonton At one time the opening ceremonies for big sporting events must have been simple occasions - a ribbon cut here, a round of applause there. These days, you take your seat with a deep breath and an open mind, aware that what you are about to witness may not fit within the usual scope of human experience. Before the festivities began at the World Athletic Championships, I made a list of the Edmonton-themed attractions we might see. Top of the list were giant inflatable Mounties, closely followed by dancing fur trappers, acrobats dressed as loggers and small children in snowball costumes.
I am pleased to say the organisers exceeded my wildest dreams. All that was missing was monkey tennis and I could have died a happy man. The very least required is a baffling pseudo-artistic 'theme' of the sort that might make sense to an over-ambitious drama teacher, but is profoundly confusing to the average punter in the stands. We had five. By way of example, the first section of energetic hoofing and waving of ribbons was called 'Quest'. "A contemporary primal story about initiation, which reflects the power of athleticism through drumming and dance," ran the explanation in the programme notes. An interesting notion for sure, although why the power of athleticism had to be reflected through drumming and dance rather than, say, athletics, escapes me. A dangerous mix In Friday morning's Edmonton Journal the words 'ballet' and 'tap' appeared in the same article as 'World Championships', and it sent an icy shiver of fear down the spine. Somewhere in all ancient religious texts is the command that tap-dancing should never be seen in a sporting arena. Sport and the performing arts should not mix. Sport is entertainment, and at its best can be pure theatre. But that's as far as it should go. When we got round to the athletics it was fantastic.
With Gezahegne Abera sprinting past Simon Biwott on the last lap, the crowd remembered what all the fuss was about and screamed themselves silly. It was a genuinely scalp-tingling moment. Soon the thesps were back on top. Hordes of children dressed in white, all-in-one hooded suits appeared, looking like a cross between petrochemical workers and the Woody Allen sperm character from 'All You Wanted To Know About Sex'. There was immediate concern. Had there been a toxic spill somewhere? Were dangerous fumes responsible for the trippy, multi-coloured spectacle that was unfolding before our baffled eyes? No. The kids were simply there to produce that perennial favourite of the opening ceremony - the spelling of giant words on the infield using hundreds of humans as letters.
Squinting from low down in the stands it was impossible to see what they spelt, but anyone in a passing light airplane must have had a whale of a time. Seconds later, the suits were ripped off to reveal smiling teenagers in lurid, tight-fitting outfits. Before you could blink they were cart wheeling away joyously, back flipping across the grass with happy abandon. A stirring melody pumped out. "Rise up, rise up," sang the hordes, and thousands in the crowd nearly did, right out of their seats and onto the nearest bus out of town. It can surely be no coincidence that this all came just one day after the Canadian government legalised the home-growing of marijuana for medicinal purposes. There must be a lot of sick people in this country. It ended with a bang, hundreds of fireworks exploding around the track into the night sky. They were brilliant, but then fireworks always are. | |
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