Rio Olympics 2016: day one of the Games – live!
- Live news and build-up on the first day of action in Brazil
- All times are Rio: add four hours for UK, 13 for eastern Australia; subtract one hour for east-coast US, four for west-coast US
- Interactive: 100 Olympians to watch at Rio 2016
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- Email john.ashdown@theguardian.com | Tweet @John_Ashdown
Welcome to day one of the Games, with Rio having just drenched us in all in the trademark colours, sights and sounds you’d expect of a South American opening ceremony, but also, rather more awkwardly, a long and rather bleak lecture about the perils of climate change. In a fascinating bait and switch move, the Brazilian organisers promised us MacGuyver but served up an entirely different kind of American hero: Al Gore.
There was a lot to take in but we did our very best.
We’re sorry, Dame Judi Dench. We’ll try not to drop litter, or massively multiply as a species, or exist as captive consuming proles. All of which seems to annoy you.
Among the boffins with their virtual medal tables, Gracenote has predicted that Team GB will hit third with a haul of 56. At Wolverhampton University, Professor Alan Nevill’s mathematical formulae has predicted they will fall just short of their target with 46.
These Games of the XXXI Olympiad may never have come at a more desperately necessary time for the United States. Not since Mexico City 1968 has the US team left behind a country in deeper turmoil and division – and a population more in need of 17 days of respite.
The Lords of Winterfell!! #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/ByTUIwbvjG
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