Opening ceremonies through Emma’s eyes

“Pure sport and pure celebration. Pure happiness!”

Emma Coburn was nice enough to share her opening ceremonies experience in her own words…

They rang the bell and we all started walking. It was about a mile walk to the stadium and we would walk 50m then be stopped for a few minutes then start walking again. So the walk took over an hour! When the bell first rang, and we started walking, I was so excited! Everyone in the group started chanting USA!—USA!—USA! It was so cool. Then after the first five minutes, after starting and stopping and starting and stopping, most of the energy died. Even though we had to wait so long, it was okay because we would stop and chat with other athletes. I happened to be surrounded with mostly track people so on the walk I talked with Jesse Williams, Lolo Jones, Allyson Felix, Amy Hastings and Desi Devilla. I enjoyed this part way more than the photo/hang out session we had earlier for an hour. I think that time was set aside to take pictures and socialize but it felt really awkward and so the walk was good because we were able to just casually talk. Once we walked through the Olympic Village, we crossed through gates into the Olympic Park (where the public has access). Once we got into the Olympic Park, the energy started to pick up again.
People were lined up waiting to get high fives, autographs, pictures, and to cheer for us. Most of the people were little kids. We would walk by some and they would just say USA, USA, USA. We still would walk 50m then stop for a few minutes and so when we were stopped, kids would ask for autographs, ask our event, take pictures, and tell us they loved our accent. Ha! The crowds really amped up the energy and made the anticipation to enter the stadium just grow and grow. Finally, when we got in sight of the stadium, my heart skipped a beat! It was so beautiful, lit up in the dark sky, it took my breath away. Knowing that I was about to walk in there for the Opening Ceremony was unreal.
As we approached, there were lines painted on the ground of how wide we can stand (we had about 50 people across and we could only have 15 people across to be able to fit on the walkway in the stadium). I knew I wanted to be on the outside so that you could see me and [fellow steeplechase athlete] Shalaya better on TV.