"Welcome Home."    These words are scattered all over Athens, part of the promotional campaign for these Olympics. Greece is the home of the ancient Olympic Games, and also hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. In speeches by Greek sports leaders, they call this the "birthplace of athleticism."    There is a point, during the Opening Ceremonies, when the Games are officially declared open. We have reached that point and have moved into the actual Olympic Games. Everything else was preparation. Now we have competition.    What a difference a day makes! On Friday morning, the Olympics were still coming up. By Saturday morning, the Games had begun.  It all changed with the Opening Ceremonies.    For an athlete, the Opening Ceremonies have special meaning. That is, if the athlete is able to participate.     The activity takes all day, starting with an early departure from the Athlete Village, a long period of waiting prior to entering the stadium and then another long wait standing on the field with thousands of other athletes from all over the world. There are 80,000 fans in the stands, and the attention of the world is right on you at that very instant.    However, there are many athletes who have to compete on Day 1 (Saturday, August 14) and have to choose between marching in the ceremony and staying back to rest and prepare for action.    ----------------------------    Editor's Note: The TV in the press office just put on the first gold-medal swim for Michael Phelps (400 IM). All activities, including the writing of this column, has been suspended until the race is over. This is exactly the difference between pre-Olympic days and "during" Olympic days. TVs are everywhere, and all attention is on the athletes and on sports.    Phelps just crushed the competition, ahead the entire race, setting a World record with 4:08.26. Even better, the U.S. won another medal in the race. Welcome to the Olympics.    ----------------------------    An example of this situation is Dennis Hall, who had to compete very early at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and skipped the Opening Ceremonies that time. Since wrestling is scheduled for the last week of the Athens Olympics, Hall and all of his teammates were able to march in the Opening Ceremony if they so desired. And Hall had a tremendous time, calling it one of the best experiences of his life. A three-time Olympian, Hall has now participated in two Opening Ceremonies. But it still excites and inspires him.    Most of the American wrestlers in the Opening Ceremonies were going through the experience for the first time. Athletes like Brad Vering (who said he will forever cherish it) and Toccara Montgomery (who said it was all worth it) were able to understand first-hand why the Olympics are so special, and so different than any other sporting activity.    One of the neat parts of Opening Ceremonies is meeting people from other sports and other nations. Freestyle Olympian Jamill Kelly had a chance to meet men's basketball Olympic coach Larry Brown during the Opening Ceremonies, and the brief introduction became a 45-minute conversation. Where else would Jamill have that unique opportunity to share his thoughts with a legend like Brown?    ------------------------------    Editor's Note2: Tara Nott Cunningham, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist in women's weightlifting and the wife of wrestling star Casey Cunningham, is on the TV doing her first snatch. We will suspend this column until her lift is completed.    Tara just lifted 77.5 kg easily and will continue her competition in quest of another medal.    --------------------------    It is not just athletes who focus on the Opening Ceremonies. Everybody in the Olympic universe wants to be there. Yet there are only so many seats, and getting into the Opening Ceremonies is very costly, and a difficult ticket to get.     A seat in the second to last row in Olympic Stadium went for $750 Euros. (almost $900 U.S.) And pretty much every seat was used. Tickets were being scalped at higher levels, and everybody was seeing if they could find a ticket somewhere. Some got lucky and found a way to get in, even late in the day.    ----------------------------    Editor's Note 3: Tara Nott Cunningham just attempted her second snatch at 80 kg, and fell backward, apparently hurting her leg.     ----------------------------    The spectators at the Olympics are there for many reasons. As one of the lucky people able to secure a seat in the stadium, I was surrounded by many people. A few of the other press officers from other sports were in my row (we got our tickets from the same source). To my left were the parents of Rhadi Ferguson, a member of the judo team.    And who would ever guess that in the seat right in front of me (one over), was 2003 USA Wrestling Man of the Year Set Agonian, who came from New York City to attend the Olympic Games. We traveled across the ocean to a far away land, to sit four feet from each other at the Olympic Opening Ceremony.    ----------------------------    Editor's Note 4: Nott Cunnigham tried her third snatch at 80 kg and missed.    -----------------------------    It is pretty easy to learn where some of the fans come from at an Opening Ceremony. Many are wearing shirts and other such outfits that have their country's name all over it. Others have flags with them. And others are dressed just like anybody else, but when their nation enters the stadium, it is easy to tell where they come from.    Sitting closely to me were spectators from Mexico, Poland, Armenia, Hungary, Canada, Australia and, of course, Greece.    ---------------------------    Editor's Note 5: The TV station just changed to the beach volleyball venue, where U.S. team of Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs won their first match handily. A quick survey of the TVs in the area showed that the beach volleyball was the favored sport for many of the journalists at their workstation.    ----------------------------    For an American, watching the U.S. team enter the stadium is very exciting. The delegation is led by the "flagbearer" who was elected by the Olympic team to carry the flag and lead the entire team during its march. This year, the flagbearer was women's basketball star Dawn Staley. (For a wrestler, I still can't match the pride I felt in Atlanta when Bruce Baumgartner carried the American flag in the Opening Ceremonies).    Entering the stadium has an affect on the athletes as well. Patricia Miranda, who is often very focused and detailed in the preparation for competition, really felt something different when she went through the process of participating in Opening Ceremonies. According to Miranda, this was very "touching," and for the first time she allowed herself to let the magnitude "sink in." She realized at that point that her status as an Olympian had great meaning to others.    With over 530 athletes, the U.S. delegation is more than 1/20th of the entire Olympic Games field. The blue colored uniforms were hard to miss in the march of nations. At one point, walking behind Staley, the U.S. team stretched from one end of the stadium all the way to the other end, with still some athletes to come. Team USA is large, a major force on the Olympic scene, something to be proud of.    --------------------------    Editor's notes 6: Swimming is back on the TV, and the Americans have been doing well. U.S. swimmers have already won four medals this evening, and another finals race is on now, a relay race. Olympic legend Jenny Thompson is on the U.S. team in the race. The U.S. placed second behind Australia, giving Thompson her 11th career Olympic medal.    ---------------------------    The part of the Opening Ceremony that gets to everybody is the entrance of the Olympic flag into the stadium, where it is raised on a flagpole, and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron with the Olympic flame. Exactly how the flame is lit in the stadium is always a bit of a mystery, unveiled during the Ceremony.     This time, the torch was carried around the stadium twice, before the final torchbearer ran straight through the entire Olympic Games delegation of athletes and ran up a