Sports Desk: The long wait is over! After a gap of 64 years, Britain got another opportunity to host the biggest-ever sports extravaganza, when Queen Elizabeth II declared the 30th Summer Olympics open.

 

The 2012 London Olympics got a dazzling start with 80,000-odd people attending the opening ceremony. Around 10,500 athletes from 204 countries attended the gala parade. For India, Wrestler Sushil Kumar led the pack. He was India's flag bearer this time.

Hundreds of heads of states and dignitaries were part of the grand opening ceremony that stunned the world. 'Slumdog Millionaire" Director Danny Boyle directed the Opening Ceremony, which turned out to be a huge success.

 

The entire ceremony lasted for three-and-a-half-hour and cost 27 million pound. Great Britain's culture and heritage were portrayed in a grand way. Boyle showed a rural British idyll, packed with cows, horses, sheep and dogs and synthetic clouds to remind the world about the British culture.