The Opening Ceremony at the Rio Olympics Friday evening was filled with celebrations of Brazilian culture and unity.
Brazil organisers put their passion for football aside and made climate change and depletion of natural resources as the central theme in almost a four-hour long ceremony to signal the opening of the 17-day extravaganza which will be competed by more than 11,000 athletes from 209 countries, including India, and a refugee Olympic team.
Around 70 Indian athletes (out of 118) and 24 officials took part in the march past with the male athletes wearing navy blue colour blazer and trousers and their female counterparts donning blue blazer and traditional Saree.
In his record seventh Olympic appearance, tennis ace Leander Paes was seen waving at the crowd, while the spotlight among the female members fell on the likes of shuttlers Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponappa and gymnast Dipa Karmakar.
Among the officials who were part of the march past were chef-de-mission Rakesh Gupta and his deputy Anandeswar Pandey.
The men's hockey players skipped the parade as they have a match against Ireland. The archery, table tennis and weightlifting teams also skipped the opening ceremony.
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