Video: 'Athens 2004 Opening Ceremony -HD-'

(Friday, August 13, 2004, evening) — The 2004 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, opened tonight at the Olympic Stadium in Maroussi, Greece, a suburb of Athens.

72,000 spectators looked on as 1996 Olympic sailing champion Nikolaos Kaklamanakis lit a giant cigar-shaped tapered column resembling a torch (not the usual cauldron).