LONDON ECLIPSES BEIJING

For Azerbaijan, the 30th Olympic Games in London began with the lifting of the national flag in the Olympic Village. Now everyone was looking forward to the official opening of the Olympics.

The opening ceremony was held at a new 80,000-seat Olympic stadium specially built for the Games. The scenario of the show called "Isles of Wonder" was kept in great secrecy. It was only known that having spent more than $ 42 million and with tremendous efforts, the organizers hoped to surpass all previous ceremonies in scope, including the former record holder in scale and costs - Beijing. And, apparently, their expectations were met. The grand act, which was staged by the Oscar-winning director of the film "Slumdog Millionaire", Danny Boyle, impressed anyone who watched it.

According to ITAR-TASS, the number of spectators who followed the opening of the Olympic Games live turned out a record. In Britain alone, the show was watched by almost 27 million viewers, exceeding thus the previous record set last year during the broadcasting of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. All in all, the world audience who followed the celebratory spectacle reached one billion people.

The ceremony was opened by a three-time Olympic champion and Tour de France 2012 winner, Bradley Wiggins, who hit a 27-ton bell installed in the stadium. It is the largest bell in the world specially made for the Olympics. Its height is 2 and width - 3 metres.

The official part of the ceremony started at 2100 London time on the dot, but the show started earlier. In a demonstration flight over the stadium, British Royal Air Force fighters swept, leaving a trace of the colours of the British flag in the sky.

Five minutes before the ceremony, the royal family turned up at the stadium, while the queen herself arrived, or rather "flew in" a little later. Her appearance became the highlight of the show: in the video, James Bond, performed by Daniel Craig himself, delivers Queen Elizabeth to the stadium by helicopter. Two people with a parachute jump out of the helicopter - and at that moment, Elizabeth appears in the royal box accompanied by the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge. At the same time, the skydivers were dressed exactly like the queen and Bond. The audience was really shocked.

In the first 30 minutes of the ceremony, the audience was shown a brief history of Great Britain the way the British themselves see it. "A perfect rural world with simple home entertainment, animals and happy light music soon gave way to the industrial revolution. It was the industrial revolution that created Britain the way the world knows it and made the country one of the economic and political leaders of the Western world for a long time," RIA Novosti describes the show.

The organizers did not forget about children either, dedicating one of the acts of the show to sick children and care about them, as well as English children's literature. With childish attention, adults followed the battle of Peter Pan and Captain Hook and the appearance of characters of British writer JK Rowling.

Along with James Bond, Queen Elizabeth II and Rowling's characters, the opening of the London Olympic Games was also attended by Mr Bean - a famous character played by one of the legendary comedians of modern Britain, Rowan Atkinson. "Getting" into the symphony orchestra, which played at the opening, the hapless musician Bean became the most popular character of the ceremony. He was also a leader by the number of mentions on Twitter.

By tradition, there was a parade of national teams. 204 delegations walked along the paths of the stadium. The procession was opened by Greece - the founder of the Olympic Games.

Azerbaijan was represented at the parade by a delegation of 100 athletes, coaches and other professionals. The national flag of the Azerbaijan Republic was carried by the captain of the Olympians and champion of the Beijing Olympics, Elnur Mammadli.

After the parade of the athletes, the official part of the opening ceremony began. Welcoming speeches were made by Jacques Rogge and the head of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe. Then British Queen Elizabeth II declared the 30th Summer Olympic Games in London open.

"The ceremony culminated in the lighting of the fire. The organizers of the Games managed to keep the suspense until the very end: even the president of the IOC did not know who exactly would be given the honour to light the Olympic flame," RIA Novosti reports.

According to the agency, the torch to the Olympic Stadium was delivered by the famous footballer David Beckham by boat on the Thames. The torch was brought into the stadium by Steve Redgrave, a 50-year-old Briton and five-time Olympic gold medallist in rowing, who handed the fire to young athletes - Britain's sporting hopes.

Upon arrival in London, each delegation received a copper petal with the name of the country and the words "30th Olympic Games - London 2012" engraved on it. At the opening ceremony, athletes of each country put their petals together. Seven young torch bearers lit one of the petals in the centre of the stadium, and after that, the other 203 caught fire.

The opening ceremony ended with grand fireworks to the accompaniment of the immortal hit of The Beatles "Hey Jude", which was performed by the author of the song, Sir Paul McCartney.

The Olympic Games will end on 12 August.

At this year's Olympic Games, 302 sets of medals in 26 sports will be played. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries will be struggling for the title of Olympic champions.

As at previous Olympics in Athens and Beijing, a Day of Azerbaijan was held in London, too. The event was attended by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, the legendary athlete Sergey Bubka, Prince Edward and other guests. Addressing the meeting, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that as an independent country, Azerbaijan is participating in the Summer Olympics for the fifth time. We won our first medal in 1996 in Atlanta. Our team was able to win only one gold medal at the time. Then, three were won in 2000 in Sydney, five in 2004 in Athens, and seven medals in 2008 in Beijing. The president expressed the hope that the Azerbaijani sportsmen would perform well in London, increasing the number of awards.