Ukraine makes historic debut at Summer Olympic Games (07/28/96)

Ukraine makes historic debut at Summer Olympic Games

by Roman Woronowycz

ATLANTA - Ukrainians' entry into the family of nations may finally have been completed at precisely 11:30 p.m. on July 19 when the first Summer Olympics squad of independent Ukraine entered Olympic Stadium in Atlanta during the opening ceremonies of the Centennial Games.

Overhead, the Ukrainian flag gently flapped in the humid Atlanta night, perched atop the stadium along with the colors of 196 other nations competing in the XXVI Summer Olympiad.

The Summer Olympic Games were probably the last major international forum in which Ukraine had not yet participated as a separate nation. That is now history.

The team had waited in adjoining Atlanta Fulton County Stadium with the other 10,624 competitors for more than an hour and a half as 182 of a total of 197 squads debuted before it.

Pole vaulter Sergey Bubka carried the blue-and-yellow banner at the head of the delegation (the 14th largest in size), an honor generally given to the member of an Olympic team who is highly respected or has extraordinary achievements to his credit.

Mr. Bubka received the distinction on both counts, explained National Olympic Committee member Valeriy Besmertnyi. "Today he is the greatest athlete in Ukraine," said Mr. Besmertny, "and much more than that."

As the Ukrainian athletes entered beneath the Olympic torch (then not yet lit) of the newly built stadium, they were a loose bunch enjoying the moment. That was obvious. Wearing creamy-tan colored outfits - the men in suits, the women in pleated summer skirts, jackets and sandals - the 247-strong contingent waved to the crowd and doffed their straw Panama hats and sun hats. They backslapped and joked with each other as they traversed the 400-meter track. While not as exuberant as the Argentine and U.S. contingents, they most definitely were having fun.

Mr. Bubka alone among them maintained a serious demeanor as he stiffly strode about 10 yards ahead of the group holding high the Ukrainian flag. He seemed very aware of his responsibility: the first in Olympic history to carry the blue-and-yellow colors of his country into an Olympic stadium during the Summer Games.

Walking behind him in the first row was the team that both helped put the group together and brought them to Atlanta: President of the NOC-Ukraine and Minister of Sports and Youth Valeriy Borzov, NOC First Vice-President Volodymyr Kulyk, NOC General Secretary Borys Bashenko, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Mykola Kostenko and the United States representative of the NOC-Ukraine, Laryssa Barabash Temple.

The entertainment that sandwiched the parade of nations most certainly was an awesome and emotionally stirring display of extravagant costumes, theatrics, pyrotechnics, dance and song. Giant butterflies, Olympic spirits and the ghosts of the Olympians of the ancient Games roamed the stadium floor, along with giant-sized Southern gentlemen and ante-bellum belles walking like marionettes.

The show was produced by Don Mischer, who explained that the idea was to maintain the traditions of opening ceremonies of the past but to instill a definite Southern charm to the celebration. He certainly achieved his aim. The spectacle included such traditions as the five rings, trumpeters, and the lighting of the Olympic flame, as well as glowing fire flies, indigenous to the South and so a part of Georgia summer nights, and even that symbol of the modern South, the pick-up truck.

Some controversy surrounded utilizing a seemingly obvious commercial motif. However, Mr. Mischer explained at a press conference the previous day that pick-up trucks have been and are still used in the South during reunions, celebrations and family get-togethers. He explained that the trucks are circled with their headlights pointed into the center to illuminate an area that becomes the place for dancing and socializing.

However, Mike Mills of the musical group REM, whose members hail from Georgia, put a slightly different spin on it when he told the Atlanta Constitution, "At least there were no gun racks on the back."

The dark and mysterious feel to the opening number set the stage for the cornucopia of visual delights that followed. In what was titled "A Call to Nations," five Olympic spirits (symbolizing the five Olympic rings and the five continents they represent) called the nations of the world to the Games.

To add further to the sensory overload, an audience kit was placed at each seat in the stadium, which included a kerchief and a flashlight. Before the program began, the audience was coached and at the given time cued to shine the flashlights or wave the colored kerchiefs. When done, it worked very effectively for the worldwide television audience of 3.5 billion.

Other high notes were pop singer Gladys Knight rendering her version of "Georgia on My Mind," a tribute to Martin Luther King and, finally, the entry of the Olympic torch into Olympic Stadium. It was carried by several U.S. Olympic figures as it circled the track, including Evander Holyfield, 1984 bronze medalist in boxing and later world heavyweight champion, and Janet Evans, four-time gold-medal winner in swimming at the 1988 and 1992 Games before it was handed to Muhammad Ali at the base of the 300-foot-high Olympic cauldron.

The appearance of the boxing legend and 1960 Olympic gold medal winner evoked gasps of surprise from many in the crowd of more than 84,000. Ali then lit the fuse that sent the flame slowly upward to the torch to signal the beginning of the Games.

Yet, after all that, it would have been just another Olympics opening ceremony for most Ukrainians. What made it special was the presence in the stadium of 243 athletes whose triumphs and setbacks for the next 17 days will be shared by Ukrainians around the world.

The first squad to represent their homeland at a Summer Olympiad, these are the ambassadors of Ukraine at what Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Chairman William "Billy" Payne called "the greatest peacetime event in modern history" and "the greatest ever assemblage of nations."

| Home Page |