Updated - Seven Children Light London Olympic Cauldron

(ATR) Seven young athletes had the honor of lighting the cauldron, which was like no other cauldron seen before.

One of the most closely guarded secrets has been the design of the Olympic cauldron. Competing delegations arriving in London received a copper petal inscribed with the name of their country and the words "XXX Olympiad London 2012."

In case anyone wondered what was carried, usually by a child next to the flagbearer, it was these petals, which were deposited in the middle of the stadium. When ignited by the seven athletes, they rose into a vertical column, fireworks went off and Sir Paul McCartney sang "Hey, Jude" to close the ceremony. Unfortunately, at first there was so much smoke, he could only be seen on the screens.

But how did the torch arrive? Remember David Beckham on that speedboat? Well, he finally got here. Sir Steve Redgrave, who was waiting on the dock, ignited his torch with Beckham’s help.

Redgrave then jogged toward the stadium, taking the steps two at a time and running along the bridge. Presumably, this was the longest leg on the torch relay by foot.

After a journey of 12,800 miles, Redgrave carried the flame through an honor guard of 500 construction workers, including some of the men and women who built the Olympic Park out of a derelict industrial site.

Redgrave passed the flame to a young athlete, who was joined by six others who represent Great Britain’s hopes for the next Olympics.

The young athletes were nominated by seven British Olympic heroes – Lynn Davies (long jump), Duncan Goodhew (swimming), Dame Kelly Holmes (800m and 1,500m), Dame Mary Peters (pentathlon), Shirley Robertson (sailing), Daley Thompson (decathlon) and Redgrave, a rower.

The veterans and young people hugged, then the past champions passed the future Olympians a torch.

The seven young torchbearers moved toward the center of the field of play and ignited a single tiny flame within one of the copper petals on the ground, triggering the ignition of more than 200 petals, The stems converged in a flame of unity.

About 260 of Britain’s greatest Olympians, including Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Tessa Sanderson, Jonathan Edwards and six medalists from the 1948 Olympics, also took part.

The Cauldron will be moved to a place of pride within the stadium within the eyesight of the competing athletes, echoing its location at Wembley Stadium in 1948.

At the end of the Games, each team will take their petal home, and the 2012 cauldron will cease to exist, just like a flower that blooms only for a short time.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Isles of Wonder," said the announcer at the night's beginning, as attention formally turned to the peasants playing 'round the maypole in the old village, seemingly oblivious to the modern world around them.

Bradley Wiggins, fresh off his Tour de France victory and still wearing his yellow jersey, rang the Olympic Bell, the largest harmonically tuned bell in the world and made especially for the Olympic Stadium.

At a cost of 27 million ($43 million), Danny Boyle, artistic director of the Opening Ceremony, told the crowd of 80,000 that the event was a "warmup act for the most important people, the athletes."

He praised the performers who have worked on the ceremony for more than two years.

"These people believe in a spirit that is quite transforming," he said. "This is their show. This really is the best of us."

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon appeared in a video with 10 minutes to go until the start of the ceremony. "I call on warring parties everywhere to lay down their weapons during the Games," he said.

The crowd, some of whom paid a top official price of 2,012 pounds ($3,200) expected a spectacle, and one that was veddy, veddy British.

Take that, Vancouver. While the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics garnered "oohs" and "aahs" when the arms of the cauldron emerged from the inside of the stadium, the six giant smokestacks rising one by one amid a cacophony of sound and smoke did the Canucks one better.

The section was titled "Pandemonium" and celebrated, if that can truly be the term, Britain’s role as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

At the end, five rings of molten medal spewing sparks formed the Olympic symbol high above the stadium.

Celebrity appearances: Actor Kenneth Branagh, in full Victorian mode with a cigar, and Dame Evelyn Glennie, who led the drumming.

Suffragettes, trade unions and protesters were also represented as a nod to Britain’s past.

"Happy and Glorious" was the next segment.

Queen Elizabeth accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh entered the stadium with IOC president Jacques Rogge as the British national antheme blared out.

On a screen Daniel Craig as James Bond is seen in a film clip with the Queen. "Good evening Mr Bond" says the Queen after ignoring him for half a minute.

The Union Jack flag is carried into the stadium and raised by representatives of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.

The hit sequences keep on coming. Nurses then wheeled hospital beds onto the field of play in a section honoring British children's literature creations such as Harry Potter, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins as well as the National Health Service.

Two tracks from Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" album soundtracked this dance and movement spectacle. Lights all round the stadium, the crowd entranced by what they are seeing.

This $43 million show was well worth the expensive tickets. People will remember this stuff for years.

An "Interlude" celebrated Britain’s place in cinema, including one of the best Olympic movies of all time, Academy Award winner "Chariots of Fire," which immortalized the 1924 Paris Games.

The theme from the film was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, which, surprisingly, included Rowan Atkinson, otherwise known as Mr. Bean, playing the keyboard – with a lot of horsing around. He began daydreaming, and then could be seen running the beach, spliced into the famous scene in Chariots of Fire – until they leave him behind. He catches a cab, pulls ahead and trips his top competitor to break the tape first.

In a very appealing segment for the British audience, music videos and sitcoms from the 1960s until today were flashed onto a typical two-story house in the center of the stadium. We can confidently say that this is the first time a kissing film montage has ever been featured in an Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, appeared in person. Al Gore, apparently, was not available.

David Beckham appearance! He is shown on the stadium screens driving a speedboat on the Thames with Jade Bailey carrying the flame. Huge applause. Beckham, of course, is immaculately dressed in a suit.

A moment of silence "honored the friends and family of those in the stadium who cannot be here tonight." Spectators had been invited to present images of loved ones so they would be digitally present. Emeli Sande sang a lovely rendition of"Abide With Me," as dancers dramatized the struggle between life and death. Perhaps the victims of the Munich Massacre could have been acknowledged during this segment.

Huge change of pace! Suddenly the athletes were welcomed to the stadium, with Greece charging into the stadium, followed by Afghanistan.

The Athletes' Parade began at precisely 10:20 p.m. and was slated to last one hour and 29 minutes. We'll see how long it takes.

Fun fact: the first Parade of Athletes was held at the 1908 London Olympics with 2,000 athletes from 22 countries. Today there are 10,490 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees, plus Independent Olympic Athletes. However, not that many athletes marched because those competing in the early days of the Games usually refrain from the exhausting activity.

Rogge will later highlight in his speech that for the first time in Olympic history all the participating teams have sent female athletes in what is "a major boost for gender equality". Brunei, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are fielding women athletes at a Games for the first time.

Great Britain have the biggest delegation with 542 athletes followed by the USA with 529 athletes.

In Olympic tradition, men from Bermuda wear Bermuda shorts, while the American Samoan male athletes are bare-chested (the officials keep their shirts on). Burundi and Cameroon wore colorful outfits. But the Canadians stayed simple, with no controversial berets or garish uniforms. They were decked out in khaki pants and red warmup jackets for both men and women.

Cuba was led by its massive wrestler Mijain Lopez Nunez, who is 6-foot-4 and weighs 265 pounds.

We are 30 minutes into the parade and are only up to the E's (Ecuador is the 59th country).

The beauty of the Athletes’ Parade is that "Equatorial Guinea" has seldom been heard pronounced with such enthusiasm as it is here. But when the announcer said, "Fiji," it sounded like BeeGee, as the BeeGees' "Stayin’ Alive" began playing. Other marching tunes included Adele’s "Rolling in the Deep", the Pet Shop Boys’ "West End Girls" and "Heroes" by David Bowie.

Germany is in pink and blue. Interesting fashion choice, but at least you can tell the girls from the boys. For Grenada, flagbearer Kirani James, world champion in the 400 meters, opened up at least a 20-meter lead over the rest of his delegation. He hopes to do the same when athletics begins in a week.

The three athletes without a country, two men (one wasSouth Sudanese born marathon runner Guor Marial) andone woman representing Independent Olympic Athletes in alphabetical order, cut up the most. They got down in the starting position and pretended to race, wrestled a bit and mugged for the camera. They followed a LOCOG volunteer carrying the Olympic flag.

Kudos to Olympic Broadcasting Services for picking out of the crowd the head of state or leader of so many NOCs as their athletes pass in front of the VIP box. Of course, they are usually the people standing and waving frantically.

So far, no one seems to be dipping their flag to the Queen.

Nepal flagbearer Presiddha Jung Shah, from aquatics, held his flag ramrod straight, while sailor Dorian van Rijsselberge of the Netherlands waved his banner dramatically.

Tennis player Maria Sharapova led the Russian delegation, looking sharp in a wine-colored blazer, but the coolest flagbearer was sunglass-wearing sprinter Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis.

The most famous back-to-back flagbearers were 800-meter runner Caster Semenya of South Africa and Spanish basketball player Pau Gasol.

The Rwandans were the only marchers with props, carrying walking sticks. Progress was made as the first Saudi Arabian women made the Olympic team. However, they brought up the rear of the delegation behind 14 men.

Wearing a big grin, Oscar Pistorius marched amidst the South African delegation, the first Paralympic competitor in track and field.

The Swedish team, in blue and yellow horizontal stripes, looked from afar like they escaped from prison.

The second-largest team, the United States, straggled in. A large gap opened up in the midst and some marched single file. One athlete even stopped, turned around, and took pictures. The 1:29 allotted time expired as the U.S. marched in.

As soon as Zimbabwe was announced, the crowd started to buzz. Chris Hoy entered the stadium holding the Union Jack as high as he could as Great Britain burst into the stadium. The athletes wore their hopes for gold on the insides of their sleeves, as well as on the collars of their gold-trimmed white outfits. The Queen looked a little bored as they marched in, but Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry clapped enthusiastically. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall also attended.

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Games just as her father, King George VI, did 64 years ago at the 1948 Olympics, dubbed the "Austerity Games." Of course, the British monarch has now done the honors twice, having also opened the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. That is an Olympic record.

"I open the Games of London, celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the Modern Era."

The Olympic flag was carried in by humanitarians and peacemakers: Doreen Lawrence, Haile Gebreselassie, Sally Becker, Ban Ki-Moo (secretary general of the UN), Leyman Gbowee, Shami Chakrabarti , Daniel Barendom and Maria Silva.

vAs had been rumored, Muhammad Ali did have a role in the ceremony. He came in behind the flagbearers, though he had to be assisted. Ali, who ignited the Olympic Cauldron in 1996 in Atlanta, was wearing sunglasses and looked frail.

Written by Karen Rosen and Mark Bisson.

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