OLYMPICS Beckham Closing Ceremony Pics
One of the best decisions (but one of the worst-kept secrets) of the 2008 Olympics for their Closing Ceremony was the inclusion of David Beckham in the London handoff celebration, an eight-minute extravaganza included to celebrate the passing of the torch to the Summer Games' next host city...
(in photo, Beckham on left; Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page on right)
Handover organizer Bill Morris described the concept of the eight-minute celebration as "simple, youthful, athletic loud and proud like London, entertaining and fun."
A red double-decker bus slowly entered the stadium after the Olympic flag was handed over to the mayor of London. As it stopped, surrounded by onlookers, a young Chinese girl handed over a soccer ball to a British girl, who then entered the bus...
The vehicle then metamorphosed ('Transformers' style), with the top section flaps folding down and revealing a nighttime cityscape of London. Then risers came up, and Jimmy Page was on a platform playing the intro to the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love" as singer Leona Lewis joined in with the vocal. As the song crescendoed and climaxed, David Beckham appeared alongside the musicians. At the very end of the song, he kicked a ball into the throng below; it made a nice souvenir for a Japanese volunteer in the crowd.
It was all over in 8 minutes, but was a highlight of the night...
Here are more great images, and a Reuters news story:
PHOTOS of Beckham in the Closing Ceremony - China View , Reuters
STORY - "Beckham sets ball rolling..."
VIDEO - Beckham talks about his role in Beijing during the GALAXY SuperClasico news conference, WATCH HERE
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