WINTER OLYMPICS: Here are the biggest moments from the opening ceremony

            

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WINTER OLYMPICS: Here are the biggest moments from the opening ceremony

Cork Gaines

Business Insider, February 9, 2018

The 2018 Winter Olympics officially kicked off on Friday with the opening ceremony held in the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.

While NBC will air the ceremony in primetime on Friday evening in the US, the ceremony was carried live — sans commentary this year — online.

Below we will follow along with the biggest moments from the opening ceremony.

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The show opened with fireworks and an incredible view of the stadium with the mountain events lit up in the background.

NBC Sports Live

The stadium, which was built just for the Olympics and will be torn down later this year, is a pentagon to represent the five goals of the games: the economy, technology, the arts, peace, and the environment.

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

The show opened with a large white tiger being followed by a group of children out of cave.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

The children appeared to discover a world of other mythical creatures.

NBC Sports Live

The opening scene was followed by the introduction of the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in.

NBC Sports Live

The ceremony then moved into the pageantry of the event, including a choreographed dance of drummers.

NBC Sports Live

The South Korean flag was then carried into the stadium.

NBC Sports Live

The flag was carried by past Korean Olympic champions.

Reuters

The parade of nations began with Greece as usual, due to their role in the origin of the Olympics.

NBC Sports Live

The countries then enter alphabetically, based on their names in the language of the host country.

NBC Sports Live

The American delegation was largest ever in Winter Olympics history, with 242 athletes.

Christophe Ena

And everybody wanted a selfie with Lindsey Vonn or Shaun White.

NBC

Vice President Mike Pence was in attendance.

Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

A fake Donald Trump and fake Kim Jong-un were spotted in the stands and were kicked out.

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

The team from Bermuda came out in shorts!

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former NBA basketball player Yao Ming was also at the opening ceremony.

Phil Noble/Reuters

The athletes from Russia walked out behind an Olympic flag and without a flag bearer.

Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

Pita Taufatofua of Tonga, who became famous for going shirtless and oiled up in Rio for the Summer Olympics, is back as a cross-country skier. And yes, he was shirtless and oiled up again!

Sean Haffey/Pool Photo via AP

Typically, the host nation walks out last, but this year the South Korean and North Korean teams walked out together behind a flag with the unified Korea.

NBC Sports Live

After the parade, the children were back and floating on a boat in the sea.

NBC Sports Live

Unfortunately, NBC did not provide commentary for the live stream of the opening ceremony as they have done for past Olympics. As a result, the cultural explanations for much of the performance were lost on most Americans until the tape-delay broadcast.

NBC Sports Live

But even without the cultural references, the ceremony was visually stunning.

NBC Sports Live

The president of the Olympics organizing committee addressed the crowd. Unfortunately, no translation or summary was provided by NBC.

NBC Sports Live

The president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, then spoke and appeared to take a shot at Russia by telling the athletes to "stay clean."

NBC Sports Live

And the children are back and this time they have candles.

NBC Sports Live

Musicians In-Kown Jeon, Eun-mi Lee, Hyun-woo Ha and Ji-yeong performed.

Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

They sang a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine."

NBC Sports Live

The show then moved to the ski slopes with an awesome light display that included a floating silhouette of a snowboarder who followed the real snowboarders down the mountain.

NBC Sports Live

Snowboarders then went down the mountain with flares.

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

At the bottom, the snowboarders lit an Olympic rings in the snow.

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

And a floating silhouette of a snowboarder morphed into floating Olympic rings

NBC Sports Live

The Olympic torch was carried into and around the stadium by various Korean athletes.

Pool Photo via AP

Including golfer Inbee Park (on the right).

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Figure skater and 2010 Olympic gold medalist Yuna Kim lit the Olympic cauldron.

NBC Sports Live

It's official. The Games have begun!

Sean Haffey/Pool Photo via AP

More fireworks.

Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony