Sandbox / Olympic Ceremonies

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It seems that most recent opening and/or closing ceremonies would feature giant puppets.
  • The ceremonies of Sochi 2014 featured three animatronic puppets of its mascots, the Bear, the Hare and the Snow Leopard.
  • London 2012's opening ceremonies featured a "nightmare sequence" with a group of children being attacked by puppets of famous villains from British literature such as Voldemort and Captain Hook.
  • Vancouver 2010's opening ceremony featured a huge bear made of lights, and its closing ceremony topped it with giant inflatable beavers and Mounties.
  • Atlanta 1996's opening had a giant thunderbird that represented The American Civil War and the destruction wrought thereby, especially noteworthy since Atlanta was the only city razed to the ground during the war as part of Union general William Tecumesh Sherman's "March to the Sea".
  • The conclusion for the opening ceremonies of Lillehammer 1994 featured a gigantic egg which became a globe and hatched a glittering dove, as thousands of silver dove-shaped balloons were released.
  • Munich 1972 had the "Olympic Rainbow" at the closing ceremonies. This was a piece of installation art created by Otto Piene. It had five helium-filled polythene tubes in the Olympic colors, each one 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet) long. Piene has installed different versions of these lovely things all over the world.
• Bookends: The Parade of Nations at the ceremony always starts with Greece, creators of the Olympics, and ends with the host country. In 2004, this presented a quandary. You can't have a team march twice, so they had the Greek flag enter first, and the Greek athletes enter last.
• Call-Back
  • At the opening ceremony of Vancouver 2010, only three of the four "arms" of the indoor Olympic Cauldron rose from the floor of the BC Place Stadium, leaving Catriona LeMay Doan unable to light her portion. The closing ceremony mocked the malfunction by having a mime "manually lift" the missing arm, before "summoning" LeMay Doan, allowing her to finally light her arm of the indoor Cauldron.
  • One infamous malfunction involves four of the five Olympic Rings emerging from five snowflakes during the opening ceremony of Sochi 2014. This became a running gag with the hashtag #ringfail on Twitter. Come the closing ceremony, a human formation parodied the same malfunction, but this time with the performers representing the missing Ring finally "fixing" the error.
  • Also from Sochi 2014's closing ceremony, the animatronic Polar Bear sheds a Single Tear after "blowing" out the Olympic Flame, reminiscent of an image of a tearful Misha during the closing ceremony of Moscow 1980, moments before a balloon rendition of it was flown away.
• Cartoon Creature: Some Olympic mascots are so abstract it's hard to tell what they actually are. The most blatant one is Izzy from Atlanta 1996, whose species is classified as a "Whatizit" (his own animated special implies they are anthropomorphic Olympic torches). The Rio 2016 mascots, Vinicius and Tom, are downright mish-mashes of Brazilian fauna and flora.
• Disturbed Doves: Part of the tradition during opening ceremonies is the release of doves symbolizing peace. Usually this happens after the Flame is lit. Unfortunately, during Seoul 1988 they were released immediately between the singing of the Olympic Hymn and the arrival of the Torch, at which point some perched on the cauldron and ended up being burnt as it was ignited. In reaction to animal rights groups' negative feedback, subsequent Games would only use replicas (albeit the last time live doves were used was in Barcelona 1992).
• Music at Sporting Events:
  • The official anthem of the Games is the Olympic Hymn, written by Kostis Palamas and composed by Spyridon Samaras, first played at Athens 1896 but not used regularly until Rome 1960. It is used in the opening ceremonies, when the Olympic Flag is raised, and at the closing ceremonies, as it is lowered, as well as in medal ceremonies where the gold-winning athlete(s) do not have their own NOC (either as independents or because their original NOC is serving suspension).
  • Unofficially, the most famous piece of music associated with the Games is the "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" by John Williams, first used as the theme of Los Angeles 1984. Other themes for Games held in the United States are "Summon the Heroes" (Atlanta 1996) and "Call of the Champions" (Salt Lake 2002), as well as "Olympic Spirit" for NBC's broadcast of Seoul 1988. For his contribution to music at sports he was awarded the Olympic Order in 2003, a special medal for people who contributed to the development of modern sport.
  • The pre-Williams Olympic fanfare heard on ABC and NBC's coverage of the Games beginning in Innsbruck 1964 was Leo Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" from his Charge Suite. Williams includes a slightly fancier version of this in his composition. It is very difficult to find Arnaud's original version online today.
  • Beijing 2008's athletes parade features a medley of international music representing the five continents—a Chinese orchestra (Asia), Scottish bagpipers (Europe), Aboriginal musicians (Oceania), South African drummers (Africa), and a Mexican mariachi band (Americas).
  • The athletes' parade during London 2012's opening ceremony played several contemporary hits, from Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" to The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" (appropriately enough while Fiji enters) and even Irish rock band U2's "Where the Streets have No Name" and "Beautiful Day", as well as electronic pop hits Underworld, which directed the music throughout the ceremonies. When Great Britain entered, the PA plays David Bowie's "Heroes". This segment was also book-ended by The Chemical Brothers' "Galvanize". Given that Danny Boyle was the London 2012 artistic director, all the music used was highly thematic. The theme song from Chariots of Fire (itself a film about two British Olympians during Paris 1924) would also be played during all medal ceremonies, while "Heroes" would override the song whenever British athletes win gold medals.
  • Sochi 2014 features DJ Leonid Rudenko playing remixes of notable pieces of Russian music throughout the athletes' parade.
  • The Rio 2016 arena DJs also frequently exploited this—Usain Bolt's victory warranted "Usain Bolt The Puma", "Champion", and two Jamaican reggae songs; Egyptian athletes were greeted by a local song about Pharaohs; and overtimes tried to make the crowd optimistic with "Don't Stop Believin'".
  • Pyeongchang 2018's athletes parade also features a lot of EDM renditions of popular Korean classics, beginning with "Hand in Hand" by Koreana, the official theme song of Seoul 1988, and ending with the two Koreas marching together to the tune of "Arirang", a folk song considered the unofficial national anthem of the Korean peninsula. In between are hits from the K-Pop surge of The New '10s, such as "Gangnam Style" by PSY, "Likey" by TWICE, "Fantastic Baby" by Big Bang, "DNA" by Music/BTS, and "Red Flavor" by Red Velvet.
• Passing the Torch:
  • The Olympic Torch Relay is the Ur-Example and Trope Namer, though unlike our trope definition it usually isn't explicitly passed from an older to a younger generation. The closing ceremonies' traditional handoff from the current host city to the next one also qualifies.
  • Two places the generational part was invoked were in Tokyo 1964 and London 2012, both of which had the final runners to receive their torches be young athletes. Tokyo had a 19-year-old runner who was born on the day of the Hiroshima bombings, and London had seven teen athletes nominated by veteran Olympians.
• Pun: In the opening ceremonies, the Bermuda team traditionally wears Bermuda shorts.
• Special Guest: Opening and closing ceremonies usually include appearances by celebrities and other iconic people from the host country.
• Wham Episode: Muhammad Ali's appearance at the 1996 Games' Opening Ceremony saw him racked by advanced Parkinson's disease due to the head trauma of his boxing career. This so shocked America that it is considered one of the major turning points in the popularity of the entire sport.