Performers skate and snowboard during the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Winter Olympics at BC Place in Vancouver on Feb. 12, 2010.
Kyodo via AP Photo
The Olympic flag is raised during the opening ceremony in front of the arena filled with 60,000 spectators.
Kyodo via AP Photo
Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan sang as Alberta Ballet dance members performed on a stage setting symbolizing the Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island.
Kyodo via AP Photo
It didn’t come as a surprise to many, but Canadian ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky lit the Olympic flame during the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Before he lit the cauldron, four other Canadians—Rick Hansen, Catriona Le May Doan, Nancy Greene-Raine, and Steve Nash—carried the flame.
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Spectators wave Canadian flags as Canadian athletes march in as the last delegation during the opening ceremony.
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Tomomi Okazaki leads the Japanese delegation during the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Winter Olympics at BC Place in Vancouver on Feb. 12, 2010.
Kyodo via AP Photo
Canadian aboriginal dancers performed during the opening ceremony and greeted the athletes.
Kyodo via AP Photo
Fireworks are seen over Vancouver's BC Place during the opening ceremony in Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010.
Kevin Frayer / AP Photo
Snowboarder Shaun White won a gold medal when he appeared in his first Olympics in Torino, Italy in 2006. Known for his fearless flight and long red hair, White is known as "The Flying Tomato." Time will tell if he'll continue to soar in Vancouver at his second Olympic games.
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Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill arrived in Vancouver from the snow-covered U.S. capital to pose with members of the US Olympic Women's Bobsled team at Canada Hockey Place. "People have no idea how hard you worked to get to this place," Biden told 45 Olympic athletes to rally Team USA on Friday. "Go show them who you are and, in the process, show them who we are."
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Gladys Knight, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Usher, Wyclef Jean and other members of the music industry, spanning generations, gathered together to record "We Are The World: 25 Years for Haiti" last week in Hollywood. Twenty-five years after Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie created the original installment of "We Are the World," the music video for this new rendition premiered during the Olympics' Opening Ceremony Friday night.
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Before the Olympics or Opening Ceremony were even underway, approximated 60,000 fans gathered to cheer on their homelands during a pre-show at BC Place in Vancouver, sporting their countries' colors proudly. The crowd practiced beating on cardboard drums, featuring the logo of the Four Host First Nations.
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Members of the Japanese Winter Olympic team waved their nation's flag as well as that of Canada before the Opening Ceremony, beaming proudly and happily beside their future competitors.
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Taking part in the traditional torch relay, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, dressed in official Olympic attire, handed off the ceremony's flame to IAAF Council member and Vice President Lord Sebastian Coe of Great Britain in Stanley Park.
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On the eve of the ceremony that kicks off the 2010 Olympic games, spectators gathered in downtown Vancouver to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic torch and the official sign that the games were about to begin.
AP Photo
Fireworks exploded over downtown Vancouver on Thursday, marking the arrival of the Olympic torch as proud Canadians held their red maple leafs in the air.
AP Photo
Canadian R&B singer Jully Black took the stage, which was appropriately designed to look like a giant ice sculpture, on Friday to perform for the massive crowd before the Opening Ceremony officially began.
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