OLYMPICS: Opening Ceremony: Dazzling opening pays tribute to tragic luger

Vancouver (AFP) - The Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony was launched in a flurry of ticker-tape Friday in an event dedicated to Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died earlier in a horror smash. The domed BC Place stadium in Vancouver was packed with thousands of people clad in white in an event involving a host of stars and linking Canada's past with the modern nation, including a welcome from Native peoples. Ahead of the start of the ceremony, organisers said it would include several elements in honour of Kumaritashvili who was killed after flying off the luge track at high speed and smashing into a metal pillar during a training run. As the Georgian team, dressed in red and wearing black armbands, marched into the stadium, the crowd cheered and stood to applaud. The show was being staged in front of International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, Canadian governor general Michaelle Jean and the chiefs of the Four Host First Nations.

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