Second Summer Youth Olympic Games Officially Opened in Nanjing

The Opening Ceremony for the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games took place at 8pm tonight at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre.

I attended the Opening Ceremony for the First Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore 2010. This time round, I watched the rehearsal three days earlier and am working on the actual day with my teammates from the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee Official Website team in the Communications Department.

Attendees at the event include Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the President of the People’s Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, President of the Republic of Maldives, Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of Singapore, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, Honorary President of the IOC and 3,000 athletes, officials from 205 National Olympic Committees, as well as a crowd of over 60,000 spectators.

The theme for the Opening Ceremony is “Light Up the Future”. Over 4,000 performers participated in the spectacular performance. Watch out for the aerial stunt segment, performed by a group of Shaolin youths. I was left awestruck by the visual beauty. These kids were seriously amazing!

The full video recording of the Opening Ceremony is available on the Official Olympic Youtube Channel:

More details, news and updates are available via the official Nanjing 2014 website. Do check it out. The English site is what I have been slogging with my teammates with for the past two months. 🙂