Thousands of VIPs including some 120 national leaders will jet into London for Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony, with guests ranging from Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama to the king of Swaziland.
The expected record number of heads of state and government will watch the Olympic cauldron lit by a mystery personality in a £27 million ($42 million, 35 million euros) extravaganza of music, dancing and pyrotechnics, amid a flurry of A-list parties in the British capital.
Germany’s Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda are among the leaders set to attend what will be a suitably British and eccentric show, featuring live sheep and dancing surgeons from the National Health Service.
Britain’s 86-year-old monarch Queen Elizabeth II will officially open the Games at the ceremony, whose exact contents are a secret — but which is also said to include a scene in which magical fictional nanny Mary Poppins vanquishes Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.
First Lady Michelle Obama will head the US delegation, and while there are no plans for her husband President Barack Obama to attend, his electoral rival Mitt Romney will be in the crowd wooing foreign leaders ahead of November’s election.
Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, credited with breathing new life into the country’s monarchy, will appear along with a flock of European royals including Prince Albert of Monaco.
Russia’s delegation will be led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, while strongman President Vladimir Putin has indicated he may fly in later purely to watch the judo, in which he is himself a black belt.
British football legend David Beckham is expected to appear at the ceremony despite not being selected for Team GB — his non-selection drew public anger.
The contingent of heads of state and government, which the Foreign Office says will peak at about 120 for the ceremony, outstrips about 80 who attended the Beijing ceremony in 2008 and about half that number in Athens four years earlier.
IOC branded ‘cowards’ over Munich non-tribute
LONDON: The widow of one of the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre has branded Games officials “chickens and cowards” for refusing to hold a minute’s silence at the London opening ceremony. Ankie Spitzer, whose husband Andre was among the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the attack by Palestinian extremists, will on Tuesday deliver a petition of 103,000 signatures to International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. Rogge has refused to commemorate the dead during Friday’s opening ceremony, but held a minute’s silence when he toured the Athletes’ Village in London on Monday. Spitzer accused Rogge of hiding behind half-hearted “tricks”.”I have told Rogge to make a stand, make history,” she said, in comments reported in The Times newspaper. “He told me his hands were tied. I said, ‘My husband’s hand and feet were tied when he was taken hostage and murdered at the Olympics’. He does not have the balls to make a stand.” Spitzer believes a few simple words, if not a minute’s silence, at the opening ceremony would send a potent message, but she fears that the IOC’s refusal is motivated by worries about an Arab boycott of the Olympics. “The whole leadership should take a responsible moral stand and say, ‘Not on my turf’. But they are chickens and cowards. “There is not going to be an attack or boycott just because they say, ‘Let us not forget what happened in Munich’. To buckle under threats is ridiculous.” In a statement sent to AFP, Spitzer dismissed Rogge’s tribute in the Athletes’ Village in London. “We, the families of the 11 murdered Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, consider the ‘private moment’ president Rogge had… in the Olympic Village, only as a general rehearsal for what we expect him to do during the opening ceremony in London. “We will continue our efforts to have the memory of our loved ones honoured at the opening ceremony on Friday.” Rogge has said there would be no minute’s silence on Friday because “we feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident”.
