After an almost four-hour long Opening ceremony, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad were officially declared open on Friday in Tokyo, under the slogan "United in Diversity". The ceremony began with fireworks, and was followed by paying a tribute to the victims of the coronavirus pandemic that caused the Games to take place a year later, as well as to the victims of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The introductory part of just over half an hour was followed by a parade of sports delegations from 206 countries. Traditionally, the first to come out were athletes from Greece, while the Japanese, as hosts of the Games, made up the back of this line. Our athletes made a great impression - elegantly dressed, with bright red colors, with Jovanka Radicevic and Drasko Brguljan carrying the flag at the head of the column. Unlike most delegations which brought a significantly smaller number of athletes to the parade, our team was almost complete - out of 33 competitors, 30 of them attended the ceremony. Milivoj Dukic was at the Olympic Sailing Village, while Danijel Furtula and Marija Vukovic are yet to arrive in Tokyo. The most impressive part of the ceremony was the when 1,824 drones formed the logo of the Tokyo Games above the stadium and then turned that logo into a globe. Before the official part, the legendary anti-war song of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1971 "Imagine" was performed by Angélique Kidjo, Alejandro Sanz, John Legend and Keith Urban. After brief speeches by the President of the Tokyo Organising Committee Seiko Hashimoto and the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, the Games were officially opened by the Japan's Emperor Naruhito. He thus repeated the role of his grandfather Hirohito, who officially opened the Olympics in 1964, which were also held in Tokyo.
