Opening ceremony kicks off Rio Olympics

TheGames officially beganwith the opening ceremony.

While some competitions started on Wednesday, the Games officially got under way with the lighting of the cauldron and the recitation of the Olympic oath.

That's former Brazilian marathon runnerVanderleide Lima doing the honours. (Hereplaced soccer legendPelewho withdrew due to illness.)

Fireworks lit up theMaracana Stadium Friday night.

From the first refrains of samba music tothe lighting of the Olympic cauldron, the showran for some four hours and was bookended by fireworks.

Greece opened the parade of nations.

As is Olympic custom, Greece was the first country into the stadium. From there, nationsenteredin alphabetical order following thePortuguese alphabet.

Canada's athletes, led by trampolinistRosieMacLennan,entered 38th.The United States(EstadosUnidosda Americain Portuguese) came in with theEcountries.

The entrance of the Russian team, diminished in numbers after nearly one-third of its potential Olympians were banned following doping scandals, was subdued.

British tennis starAndy Murray led his teammates while carrying the Union Jack in one hand (perhaps to prove that he could, in fact, do it without endangering anyone's eye.)Rafael Nadalcarried the flag for Spain. Croatia'sNovak Djokovic is at the Olympics, too. (Canada's Milos Raonic, however, opted not to come to Rio.)

Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Prycehad some pretty impressive hair.

And Tonga's shirtlessflag-bearer stole the show.

A glisteningPita Nikolas Aufatofua, who winked directly to camera, made a name for himself on the world stage with this look. He will compete in taekwondo.

The ceremony kickedoff with an impressive visual spectacle.

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, backdropped by a portrait of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, enteredthe stadium to the sounds of The Girl from Ipanema. (She was born inTres de Maio, in southern Brazil.)

Green is a theme atthis year's Games.

Eachcontingent wasled in bya volunteer carrying a tree sapling and athletes planted seeds to mark the Olympic organizer'scommitment to reforestation.

There was also a lotof green in general.

Performers re-enacted the history of Brazil.

The opening ceremony began with a carnivalesqueperformance representing the origin of the country'sprecolonialpeoplesthrough to modern times,followed by more fireworks.