London 2012: Top Athlete Tweets, Twitpics and Instagrams of the Opening Ceremony

What a way to kick off the greatest two weeks in sports.

The bar was set incredibly high in Beijing four years ago, and I think it’s safe to say London has raised it after Friday night’s performance.

The sheer amount of planning and events wrapped into the festivities headed by director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) is hard to wrap your head around. Roughly $42.3 million went into the historic event.  

As soon as the lights and fires began to illuminate Olympic Stadium, the Twitter-verse was quick to post the evidence.

The jets flew over the stadium to kick off the festivities, and they left a trail of red and blue behind (via Anthony De Rosa of Reuters):

Here is an astonishing shot of the five rings equipped with a fiery blaze provided by the Olympics official Twitter feed:

Here's a look at the incredible light show in GIF form:

Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star was able to capture some of the fireworks that were going on:

There was a segment that featured JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame reading an excerpt from Peter Pan while dancing Mary Poppins were littered throughout the stage. It was a child's dream.

Then the scene turned dark, and the ghouls entered the stage (via Olympic Twitter feed):

Mr. Bean had an unexpected segment that even included a fart joke (via B/R):

The music portion of the event was breathtaking, to say the least.

The psychedelic light show was a scene to remember. Classic British music from every era was blasting from the enormous speakers in the center of the arena. There was a different song playing seemingly every 10 seconds, which is perfect for today’s society, as Phillip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune notes:

"

The segment is moving like the attention spans in modern world....

— Philip Hersh (@olyphil) July 27, 2012"

Here’s an incredible photo of the music portion (via Olympics Twitter feed):

Once the countries began to be announced, the excitement slowly waned. It’s hard to be amped for three straight hours.

But when your country is finally announced, the look on the athletes' faces was of pure joy.

Here’s Bolt’s reaction after Jamaica was announced (via B/R):

Not every team had hundreds of athletes representing them. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal provides a picture of the Gambia team:

Here is Team U.S.A. looking rather professional (via B/R):

Track and field athlete Wallace Spearmon Jr. was able to snap a picture with a breathtaking backdrop:

There was wide speculation on who would do the honors of lighting the Olympic cauldron. Would it be David Beckham? Or how about Roger Bannister? Yahoo! Sports Maggie Hendricks provides her guess:

"

New favorite to light torch: Hologram Charles Dickens.

— Maggie Hendricks (@maggiehendricks) July 27, 2012"

In the end, everybody was wrong.

A small group of children lit the torch, and Sports Illustrated’s Nick Zaccardi has the visual evidence:

With Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude" to close the festivities, every member of the crowd was on their feet. It was a moment that gave you goosebumps, and it was a fitting way to kick off the Olympics.

Let the games begin!

Athlete Tweets

American gymnast John Orozco couldn’t help but take a “mirror pic” before heading out to the ceremony:

There were over 16,000 athletes on hand, and this is how the U.S. men’s basketball team dressed for the momentous occasion (courtesy of Chris Paul):

Usain Bolt, aka the “fastest man in the world,” had this hilarious response when CNN’s Piers Morgan asked to be at the Jamaican after-party:

"

I know some ppl your name will be on the list “@piersmorgan: I want to be at the Jamaica #Olympics after-party.”

— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) July 27, 2012"

Follow Eric Ball on Twitter.