The summer is in the yard, but joyful feelings for the success of our team at the Winter Olympics in Sochi have not yet been forgotten. Let us return to our memories in those days. I remember that the first in the history of Russia Winter Olympics was preceded by a number of scandals related to the financing of this important sports event. Then, closer to the opening ceremony, all kinds of mistakes began to happen. Pictures of public toilets without partitions circled around the world and the Olympic torch at the very gates of the Kremlin went out of time. But if the fire was resumed (with the help of the Zippo lighter, which the FSB officer who wanted to remain unknown to the athlete Shavarsh Karapetyan helpfully brought to the athlete), then the incident at the Fisht stadium during the opening ceremony did not escape the attention of the world community. Why didnāt the ring open at the Olympics? And why did the viewers of Russian television channels not even notice this annoying oversight?
History of the Olympic Rings
The emblem of the world sports competition was born in 1913. It was developed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin himself, who is rightly called the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The drawing - five rings interlocked in such a way as to form two rows - was adopted because in ancient Greek vases such a motif is often found. Later, circles began to be given ideological significance, linking them to parts of the world. So, it is generally accepted that the green ring symbolizes Australia, the yellow - Asia. Red stands for America, black for Africa, and blue for old Europe. This symbol - a necklace of five circles - is also present on the official flag of the Olympics. It was first raised in 1920 in the Belgian Antwerp. This symbolism is used at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. But why at the Olympics did not open the ring that symbolized America? Many saw this as a sign.
Snow ceremony
According to the idea of āāthe production organizers themselves, during the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi - after the performance of "Polovtsian Dances" from the opera "Prince Igor" - five giant snowflakes were supposed to be circled over the stadium. As they descended, they should have transformed first into stars, then into flowers, and finally into symbolic woven rings. This action was supposed to mean that the Olympics came to Russia. But as a result, only four āsnowflakesā successfully completed the transformation at the ceremony. One ring did not open - the upper right, red, symbolizing America. This circumstance gave reason to rejoice at the opponents of the United States, although the circle symbolizes the whole side of the world, together with friendly Honduras and Venezuela, inclusive.
In Russia, everything is in order
Against the background of previous mistakes, the world community was expecting something similar from the opening ceremony. A lot of photojabs and demotivators immediately appeared in the foreign media and the blogosphere, playing around this incident. However, Russian viewers for a long time remained completely unaware that the ring had not opened in Sochi. On the screens of their TVs, the ceremony was held as if by notes, without hitch. Why? The fact is that the opening of the Olympics was not broadcast live, but in the recording, with a delay of a couple of minutes from real time. The operators had the opportunity to mount the "picture" and show the shooting of the dress rehearsal of this ceremony. Probably, the security service is still inquiring and figuring out why the ring did not open at the Olympics. The viewer on this joyful day was full of pride in his country. But the opposition claimed that this āPotemkin ringā gave them the right to claim that the Russians live in parallel reality. So everyone had their own assessments of what happened.
Why the ring did not open at the Olympics
The author of the script for this ceremony and producer Konstantin Ernst shed light on the causes of the incident . He admitted that the budget of the opening show was cut in half, and the terms of its preparation - in three. Therefore, it is not surprising that in technical terms , something went wrong. An attempt to hijack a Turkish plane by a drunken tourist has nothing to do with this. It is also foolish to perceive this diversion. The organizers of the Games in Sochi with dignity came out of this situation, when at the final ceremony people first lined up to form four rings, and then the fifth one ārolled inā with great fanfare. A sense of humor saved us this time too. But those mistakes that the last Olympics left - the fifth ring and the notorious Zippo lighter, were adopted by various trading companies.