Opening Ceremonies for World Masters Games

We arrived safe and sound and were picked up by our Aussie friends, Nick and Cathy and taken back to their place to freshen up. We then headed directly to Sydney Olympic Park to pick up our accreditation and check out the Games Expo. Lots of interesting displays from essential oils (???) to SKINS (don't ask!). Actually it was quite good, although the gullible Canucks quickly took up an offer for some energy water that we were sure was free and then had to fork over $3.50 for the water....oh well, it was good.

We then assembled in an adjoining stadium to prepare for the marching in of athletes (still can't get use to calling us that). This started at about 3:30pm and we didn't march into the main stadium until 5:30pm. But, when you are trying to organise 30,000 athletes into groups by their sports, it was quite a feat! At least there was good music playing and even better people watching. From the amount of Canadian flags we saw, it was clearly evident that, next to the Aussies, Canada has the next largest delegation in attendance.

At 5:30pm we started our walk towards the main Olympic Stadium. While assembling, we met Jason (a fellow Canuck and half marathoner) in the line. He had a Garden Gnome along with him that became an instant celebrity and was in huge demand for photos. We (Jason, the Gnome and ourselves) created quite a stir. As we were in the "Athletics" sport division, we were one of the first ones into the stadium, so we got to enjoy the next hour and half of athletes marching in from the comfort of our chair in the in field area of the stadium. Of course, we madly waved our Canadian flags and cheered for every Canadian that walked by our section.

After the parade of athletes and the raising of the Games flag, the opening ceremonies started with an Aboriginal dance performance and then other music, dancers and fireworks. These Games are the largest multi-sport event in the world (twice the size of the Olympics) and the Sydney Games set a world record for most athletes (30,000) and countries (95) represented! It was quite special to be a part of this.

Then it was home to bed (after some hot chocolate and toast). It was an awsome start to our adventure!