The Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony 2010

Last Saturday, I attended the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Opening Ceremony, which was held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform. I was glad that I have witnessed the lighting of the Olympic flame which signified the opening of the inaugural YOG that was taking place in none other than Singapore! :)

Able to guess any of the national flags on display in the photo below? :p

This was the spectator area.

The performing area, which features a platform with water,
which was used in some of the performance segments later on.

Sights Around Me

The Marina Bay Sands Sky Park was crowded with people!

And so was the area at One Fullerton!

Celebrating together. One world~

When night camep we were entertained by the spectacular performance put up.
We were part of the performance too... by lighting up the dove torch lights~
A very sweet and serene moment~

And the heart-shaped torch light too... (I love this torch light!) :p

There were so many performers-volunteers that were involved in putting up this good show for the billions of TV/Web viewers all around the world! Kudos to them for their time and effort!

And as it says in the Olympic Charter, the five-ringed symbol "represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games."

One of the performance had a giant book (as seen in pic below) displayed. A guy was shadow boxing by himself and then a giant monster appeared which attacked the guy. As much as it seemed to be like a losing battle for the guy, a 'David VS Goliath' moment happened and then the guy won as he had summoned his inner hero to fight against all odds. When I saw the guy shadow-boxing away, I was thinking, "Why isn't it @anthonyl1m performing?" LOL!

It was time to sing the National Anthem and to have the Singapore flag raised.

The sportspeople from each country walked past, waving their national flag.

Firework displays were aplenty at the YOG Opening Ceremony. We don't get to see so much for our own National Day parades. Took some firework shots, but pls pardon if its not that nice.... It was my first time taking fireworks with my Canon dslr. I think I could have taken close to a hundred shots, but alot of them had the smoke trail from the previous fireworks as I was rapidly shooting away. So here's a couple of shots to share with you. :)

One of the last few performances was to have witnessed a total of 204 sportspeople, from 204 countries that are participating in the YOG 2010. These young athletes were carrying their respective national flag and waving their glags with pride and honor. There were so many countries which I have not even heard of their names before! So you see, the world is so big... So thankfully there's something like the YOG to unite young athletes from all continents ofthe world! :p

A total of 204 flags!

The YOG flag to be raised onto the flag pole, just beside of the Singapore flag.

These three people (representing all the coaches, referees and athletes that are involved in the YOG) took an oath each to upholdhonor, integrity, etc, during the games.

Attention was brought to the area near Fullerton Bay...

The pic below was a 27-metres long Phoenix boat (which was a symbol of rebirth and new beginning) that was accompanied by dragon boaters from the various educational institutions. There was something extremely important onboard the big boat... It was none other than the Youth Olympic flame, which was carried by Swimmer Amanda Lim Xiang Qi.

The final four torchbearers carried the torch and did a torch relay, before the final handover of the torch to Darren Choy, a 16-years old National Sailor. He was the selected athlete to light the cauldron, officially opening the start of the YOG 2010.

This particular moment was a very beautiful moment...
Not sure if you were there to see it, or you have seen it on the TV...
It was very very beautiful....

So there he was, setting the cauldron ablaze with the Youth Olympic flame

What happened next was so breathtaking, that I felt glad that I was able to witness the whole thing LIVE. All thanks to Samsung Singapore for making it happen~

I passed by the area while on the ECP expressway on Wednesday, turning out at the Rochor Road exit. When I saw the flameonce again, I was reminded of that beautiful night, whereby I was part of the tens of thousands of people that came together to celebrate the opening ceremony of the inaugural YOG. For those who have not seen the flame in real life yet, do see it by the day of the closing ceremony, which is on 26 August 2010.

A group photo before we go! With Leon, Ashton and Meldric~

(Photo credit to Leon)

P/s: Took photos of me, with the flame in the background... But lemme get those photos first and shall post it up! Also, I took a few videos which I will also upload on Youtube. So stay tuned! Meanwhile, I will be boarding an airplane in 5 hours' time! See ya all in a few days' time! :p