Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony took place on February 22, 2007 at 19:30 Japan Standard Time (JST) (10:30 UTC) at the Sapporo Dome, with 23,602 spectators. Mr. Fumio Ueda, Sapporo Mayor and Organizing Committee President, delivered a welcome speech, along with Ms. Yasuko Ikenobo, Deupty Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and Ms. Harumi Takahashi, Governor of Hokkaido. His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino also delivered words of welcome, followed by numerous performances paying tribute to local traditions. After the opening ceremonies were completed, the men's and women's individual sprint cross country skiing competitions took place.
Read more about this topic: FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007
Famous quotes containing the words opening and/or ceremony:
“The Heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge. The distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more we know. But their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in the scale. Or dangerously higher.”
—Richard Blake, and William Cameron Menzies. Narrator, Invaders from Mars, at the opening of the movie (1953)
“Those who marry God can become domesticated tooits just as hum-drum a marriage as all the others. The word Love means a formal touch of the lips as in the ceremony of the Mass, and Ave Maria like dearest is a phrase to open a letter.”
—Graham Greene (19041991)